A good RPG with gameplay that ranges from fun to convoluted and a story that often switches from very engaging to downright dull.

Let's start with gameplay. There are a LOT of mechanics here. A job system, two different equipment types, two different fundamental types of skills, fusion skills, charge skills, interlinking, interlink skill trees, there's a lot. Even when compared to other xenoblade games (except maybe X) it feels like there's more here. And a lot of it doesn't feel like it meshes together particularly well, even if it's still fun. There's a certain disjointed feeling the mechanics have, and it prevents the game from ever entering a truly natural sense of flow for me. It does allow for a good deal of customization, and being able to swap party members mid-combat is a great change that I'm shocked wasn't introduced in the other games. However, I have another major problem. Having 6 (technically 7) party members can really make it hard to tell what kind of impact you're having on a fight. Even on some later bosses, I was able to just switch to a DPS character and then leave and the game would literally play itself.

Now for the story. It's mostly bolstered by a great main cast. I like all of them, and they all get some moments to shine. There's some chapters where it has great momentum that carries on to fun reveals and exciting moments, and it's got some great action choreography. But there are other times that it gets excessively talky, and it feels like it's just spinning it's wheels as points.

It's good, but not much more than that. It's still nowhere near as good as the original, but it's much better than 2 is. 3 seems to forget that cramming as much as possible into one game doesn't make it stronger, and I hope to see a more focused approach in the DLC.