Note: I played this game with all the QoL stuff added by post release patches, but nothing from the paid DLC.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, more than anything else, demands a boatload of patience from the player: Patience for slowly-revealed combat systems, for the often-rote story beats, for the presence and apparent centrality of loot box mechanics, for the... risqué humor and character designs... Really, there's a lot to deal with.
For those who can stick with the game through the early bits and get a handle on how everything works as it's laid out, and through the anime otaku humor BS, Xenoblade 2 has a lot to offer. Its combat system, while daunting, is genuinely fun to mess with and engage in for the most part (emphasis on "the most part"; getting toppled or blown down always sucks.), though it's not until halfway through the game that you get to really see it in its full glory—and the game serves you quick one-time-only tutorials even into the endgame! The inability to reread these compared to every other Xenoblade is one of the few unqualified negatives I can give the game.
The story's largely rote, at least in the first two thirds—it's a boy meets girl tale where the girl is a sentient sword and the boy's on a fantasy road trip to save the world from its dwindling resources—but the strength of the adventure lies in how that story is presented. The world of Alrest is laid out naturally, and given a positively lavish coating of texture through not just cutscenes, but the background NPCs and the map design itself. If there's any single thing Monolith Soft excels at, it's making a world feel alive and lived-in, and the utterly gorgeous environments on offer here are no exception.
What would a world like this be without fun and well-realized characters? As with Xenoblade 1, this game's core cast is a quirky and well-balanced sextet of heroes, this time accompanied by supporter Blades (sentient weapons) to help with comic relief. Of all of them, I found myself enjoying the company of the straitlaced combat pro Mòrag and the acerbic-yet-loving Nia the most, though pretty much everyone in the cast gets to show their depth and capacity for cool at some point. Yes, even Tora, the kid who built a maidbot based on his very horny dad's blueprints.
There's a lot that can be alienating about the game at first, especially to fans of the first Xenoblade. But let me assure everyone: The gacha stuff is largely unnecessary since even generic Blades have strong powers that are useful if not essential for getting through things, and half the unique ones are gotten through milestones anyway. The combat, though a departure from XC1, is easy enough to grab especially with how long it takes to get everything revealed, and despite the Final Fantasy-esque setting shift to a wholly separate world, there are still enough connections to the first game to delight fans and even cause some "Oh, shit!" moments. This is the game that got me—as so many other people—into the series, and I highly doubt I would have enjoyed 1 Definitive in quite the same way if I hadn't done this first. It's absolutely worth the time investment, even if it's a little clunkier in some respects. One can only hope 3 will be a worthy successor...
Edit: some grammatical weirdness, removed the star count in keeping with my new policy, made it all more current.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, more than anything else, demands a boatload of patience from the player: Patience for slowly-revealed combat systems, for the often-rote story beats, for the presence and apparent centrality of loot box mechanics, for the... risqué humor and character designs... Really, there's a lot to deal with.
For those who can stick with the game through the early bits and get a handle on how everything works as it's laid out, and through the anime otaku humor BS, Xenoblade 2 has a lot to offer. Its combat system, while daunting, is genuinely fun to mess with and engage in for the most part (emphasis on "the most part"; getting toppled or blown down always sucks.), though it's not until halfway through the game that you get to really see it in its full glory—and the game serves you quick one-time-only tutorials even into the endgame! The inability to reread these compared to every other Xenoblade is one of the few unqualified negatives I can give the game.
The story's largely rote, at least in the first two thirds—it's a boy meets girl tale where the girl is a sentient sword and the boy's on a fantasy road trip to save the world from its dwindling resources—but the strength of the adventure lies in how that story is presented. The world of Alrest is laid out naturally, and given a positively lavish coating of texture through not just cutscenes, but the background NPCs and the map design itself. If there's any single thing Monolith Soft excels at, it's making a world feel alive and lived-in, and the utterly gorgeous environments on offer here are no exception.
What would a world like this be without fun and well-realized characters? As with Xenoblade 1, this game's core cast is a quirky and well-balanced sextet of heroes, this time accompanied by supporter Blades (sentient weapons) to help with comic relief. Of all of them, I found myself enjoying the company of the straitlaced combat pro Mòrag and the acerbic-yet-loving Nia the most, though pretty much everyone in the cast gets to show their depth and capacity for cool at some point. Yes, even Tora, the kid who built a maidbot based on his very horny dad's blueprints.
There's a lot that can be alienating about the game at first, especially to fans of the first Xenoblade. But let me assure everyone: The gacha stuff is largely unnecessary since even generic Blades have strong powers that are useful if not essential for getting through things, and half the unique ones are gotten through milestones anyway. The combat, though a departure from XC1, is easy enough to grab especially with how long it takes to get everything revealed, and despite the Final Fantasy-esque setting shift to a wholly separate world, there are still enough connections to the first game to delight fans and even cause some "Oh, shit!" moments. This is the game that got me—as so many other people—into the series, and I highly doubt I would have enjoyed 1 Definitive in quite the same way if I hadn't done this first. It's absolutely worth the time investment, even if it's a little clunkier in some respects. One can only hope 3 will be a worthy successor...
Edit: some grammatical weirdness, removed the star count in keeping with my new policy, made it all more current.