Whereas Xenoblade Chronicles 1 felt cohesive in narrative, tone, and gameplay, the whole of Xenoblade 2 unfortunately is worse than the sum of its parts. I went into this game with an open mind and I attempted to compare it to its predecessor as little as possible. This did make me enjoy the game more than I probably would have otherwise, but there are still a few too many glaring issues with the core game design that I cannot overlook.

The main combat loop of Xenoblade 2 is actually great, and a good step up from Xenoblade 1. The part that is frustrating, however, is that the sidequests no longer made me feel motivated to get into the combat. In Xenoblade 1, you got a stack of sidequests to complete as soon as you entered a new area. These objectives were usually very simple, which made it easy to complete as you went along exploring the newly discovered locale. This made the quests like a sort of checklist that you could do subconsciously while following the main story path. In Xenoblade 2, the sidequests are much more involved, but as a result they felt like a nuisance when I just wanted to continue the main story. I had to go out of my way much more often to complete sidequests, and the reward you get from each quest is not at all worth the amount of time you need to put in for each one. Since I wasn't getting into combat to complete quests anymore, they didn't feel as rewarding as they COULD have been, even though the core gameplay is really, really fun.

There are parts of this game's story that I really like, but once I reached the end of the game, I found that the writers had too many ideas and not enough time to flesh out all of them. For example, one of the main villains in the story has an incredibly interesting motivation, relating to mortality, immortality, and one's true purpose. These concepts might be expanded on more in the Torna DLC (which I haven't played as of writing this review), but right now it feels like so much missed potential. They could have centered the entire game around these concepts like how Xenoblade 1 was all about fate, destiny, and fighting back against a higher authority. Instead, this was just one of many different ideas thrown around at random points in the game's narrative.

I'll end this review by gushing about Xenoblade 2's soundtrack. Oh my god, this soundtrack. I actually can't believe they managed to improve upon Xenoblade 1's OST, which already felt like a masterpiece to me. How they will manage to top this for XC3, I have no idea, but I'm excited as all hell for it.

tl;dr: I liked this game, but didn't love it. I think this could have been something truly special if it were more a more focused experience like its predecessor was, but as it stands now I would recommend this to those who have played the first game and are looking for a similar, yet different experience. If you haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, I suggest picking that up instead. It's overall the better game and its strengths are more well-rounded.

Dark Souls III is so beautiful and honestly profound in many, many ways, but it's also a game with a lot of flaws. For most people these flaws probably won't get in the way of the overall experience, but for me they definitely did. And since most people reading this review probably know what this game already does well (bosses, atmosphere, etc.) I want to put down my thoughts for what I found really frustrating about this game.

My god, the camera in this game is unbelievably bad. I can't remember the last time I had this many camera issues in a game; basically every play session it reared its ugly head. I never had this issue with DS1 or DS2, so I have to assume this is some weird byproduct of the new engine. Regardless, it really sucks and I can't in good conscience not mention this because it did bring the overall experience down.

Side quest design in this game is pretty dumb. In DS2 I was able to intuit a lot of what I was supposed to do for NPC questlines. Some of them were along the main critical path which made progressing these quests easier and way more fun. I ended up going into DS3 a lot more blind than in the other games, and overall that was a good idea, but I swear it is impossible to find any of these questlines without using a guide. As a result I failed basically every quest in the game due to making the wrong choice and/or not finding the next step in time. Really unfortunate because the characters in this game are great and I wanted to learn more about them.

I don't think either of these are really "skill issue" things, it's more just rough design that could have been ironed out with more time, I think. These were really the biggest issues that prevent me from giving the game a 5/5, because at times it really feels like it deserves that score. Friede and Gael gotta be some of the greatest boss fights in all of gaming, the soundtrack is now one of my favorites, and the conclusion to this series was wonderful to see.

After playing through this game 4 times (2 on normal, 2 on hard) I can finally say that this is a great, albeit very experimental, Gunvolt game.

I can't help but use superlatives to describe iX2. It has the best music, the best visual presentation, and the most fun challenge thanks to hard mode, but it also has the weakest story in the series and normal mode is pretty boring.

I'm interested to see which elements of the core gameplay Inti will keep and which ones they will scrap, since this game is very divisive already. Personally, I think the Razor Wheel is a cool idea but I wouldn't be sad to see it go if iX3 ever happens. If anything, give the core idea of the mechanic to Blade and make her a playable character.

If nothing else, PLEASE listen to this game's soundtrack. Ippo Yamada and the rest of III seriously never disappoint.

Although this is supposed to be a very relaxing game, it frustrated me quite a bit due to very annoying bugs that seemingly only exist for the touch control method on PC. After I found out the game had touchscreen support, I wanted to snuggle up in bed with my foldable laptop and use it like a tablet to play. But for whatever reason, it is super easy to run into game breaking bugs with this control setup. This meant I ended up replaying a level like 4 times before giving up and just switching to mouse controls. Kind of unfortunate but otherwise I had a great time and would recommend this experience if you're looking for a chill game with nice subtle storytelling.

There's two things that primarily make me love this game, and they're things I wasn't really expecting when starting out.

1. Progression feels extremely good. The feeling of hitting a wall with a boss and doing your absolute best to persevere despite the setbacks and eventually succeeding is some weird mixture of exhilaration and relief, and it's awesome.

2. Throughout the game, I felt as if I was having a conversation with Miyazaki himself. It's especially the case in the first half of the game, where the game is constantly teaching you new mechanics and ways to avoid traps and the like. Most people mention that the game falls off in the second half, but I think that's only half true. Lost Izalith is clearly unfinished and New Londo is obnoxious, but I quite enjoyed the Tomb of the Giants and the Duke's Archives. In general though, I do think the game is strongest in the beginning up to Anor Londo. The game is constantly teaching you new things and Miyazaki is a marvelous asshole.

Awesome game and a great start to my FromSoft journey :)