I rated every Xenoblade game with 4.5 stars, mostly because each one was amazing but there were small nitpicks I had with all of them. The only nitpick I have about Future Redeemed is the length. I had such a good time with this DLC and I just wanted more!

The gameplay is fairly similar to 3's combat system with a few tweaks, but those tweaks elevate this to be my favorite in the whole series, with A and Rex in particular being very fun to play as. The exploration in this DLC is also the most rewarding in the series, as everything you can find out in the world helps with giving you a better experience in the game. Whether you're finding ways to expand your combat arsenal or ways to make exploration itself easier, the items and hidden treasures of the game are all meaningful to gameplay, and it makes the whole experience feel incredibly satisfying.

The story is just peak fucking fiction man. I was a bit conflicted at first because the premise of the DLC made me think that there would be more references to past characters and moments in the series(there still definitely is plenty of this, I was just getting greedy in what I wanted), but as things went along I got more comfortable in what this actually was. A prequel set in the perfect moment of transition between the past 2 games and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It's true that when the DLC was announced I wanted an epilogue and not a prequel, but once I was done with this I truly felt like the emotional core of the entire series was perfectly encapsulated in this moment of time. Some of the newer characters are a bit underdeveloped, but they're fun companions and serve their place in the story well. Other new characters, such as A and Matthew, fare even better. Matthew is our new protagonist and he's up there as one of my favorites in the series. His interactions with A are pure gold, and A themselves are a great addition to the cast. The return of Shulk and Rex, well, need I say more? It's fucking amazing.

This best thing about this DLC is how it brings added context to the events of 3, and gives past games a more active role in the state of the world depicted in the series. I know some people will be left wanting more, but this DLC touched on everything that was important in this series, and struck a final resonant chord in its themes.

It also has some of the best songs in the whole series. The final boss theme sent my soul out of my body.

Play Xenoblade Chronicles. All the games. They're worth your time.

A damn impressive DLC, one of the best I've played. Although the base game made me very curious about a lot of the backstories that were explored here, I didn't realize how much I needed them until I finally played this. The story was emotionally fulfilling, the protagonist of this DLC is arguably a better character than Rex from the base game, and it gave a beautiful full circle moment to the best character in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Jin. The final cutscenes of this game had me shedding more than a few tears.

The combat was also improved here from the original, and the soundtrack came back again with some new songs that are absolute bangers.

It does have one glaring issue, where part of the main story is blocked off by doing what seems almost the entirety of the side quests in the whole DLC. It grinds the pacing to a grating halt and was very annoying, but overall shouldn't deter you from trying it out.

What an experience.

To say I was excited for this game would be an understatement and it truly did deliver. Ultimately not everything went the way I would have liked, but to stay hung up on that would be nitpicking to an unreasonable degree.

It's a toss up between this game and 2 for the best combat system. I did at times find myself missing the Blade Combos and the Chain Attacks from 2, but this game has very fun gameplay systems of its own that are just as equally addictive. The flexibility in the class system is also really fun as well, since you can try out different strategies and gameplay styles through pretty much the entire game and never really be punished for it, and it gives the game a lot of variety in combat as well.

The story was excellent and a step up from the other games in its moment to moment writing. The dialogue is tight and I was invested wholly into the world, from main plot to side quests. It almost has a Witcher 3 feel where there's so many side quests, and a lot of them feel absolutely mandatory as they add an incredible amount of depth and context for the main story(aside from unlocking really cool rewards).

The only complaint I'd have is that the emotional peak of the game comes about 3/4 of the way into it, and the ride from there to the end loses a bit of steam. It culminates in a final boss and confrontation that fall just a tiny bit flat, and although the spectacle of the final boss is fairly cool, I preferred the emotional investment of the characters in some of the fights that had happened earlier in the game. The final scene of the game was absolutely beautiful, however, and after playing the DLC story, I have a much better feeling about the ending to this game as well. I also felt like I wanted more references to the past games than there actually were, but that's something that the DLC story also helped fulfill for me.

I am so grateful I got to experience this beautiful trilogy.

When I got a switch I was pretty convinced I was going to mainly use it for party games like Smash Bros, but after owning it for a while I got curious and started doing some research on what other good games the system had. From what I saw, there was a very solid JRPG called Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the system that you could jump into without having played the first one so I said, "hey, why not".

Man what little idea I had of what I was getting into. This game, and by extension, this series, has risen up the ranks to become one of my favorites of all time.

Funnily enough, I was struggling a lot to get the hang of combat for a good while, and it put me off the game for a bit. There's a lot of systems and the tutorials aren't very good at explaining all of it, so I struggled against a lot of bosses. Once things clicked, however, they clicked hard. Pulling off blade combos and chain attacks that dealt crazy amounts of damage is some of the most fun I've had in any RPG combat system.

The story is top tier, particularly in the latter half of the game and especially so in the final third. It has some pacing issues and a few chapters in the first third that feel like filler, but once you push past that the game really comes into its own. It has incredible antagonists, and although the dialogue is a bit weak at times(not sure how much of it is due to localization), the overall story being told and interactions are really good. You just have to forgive that the way things are said sometimes sounds a bit contrived or cheesy.

It has some questionable design choices, with some of the female characters overly sexualized to some frankly ridiculous degrees, but if you can get past that there's a really special game here.

Oh, and that soundtrack. Truly peak, one of the best in gaming.

Played this after 2, and while I ended up enjoying 2 a bit more overall, this is is still a top tier JRPG. Amazing story, mostly great characters, and a very solid and satisfying ending. I came to the Xenoblade party a bit late and beat this around the time they announced Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and I am so grateful that I gave this series a chance because it's been one of the best gaming journeys I've ever been on.

Only reason I like 2 better is because the gameplay in 2 is considerably more fun and the ending sequence of 2 hit a bit harder for me, but this game does have more solid overall pacing and much better voice acting. Dialogue in this one is also a step up from 2.

Suffice to say, though, I'M REALLY FEELING IT

It's a very good game. The cast of characters is lovable, the soundtrack is great, and the gameplay is fun.

In the end though, it's a step below Persona 3 and 5, at least for me personally. I've heard a lot of talk that this cast feels more like "a real group of friends" than the ones in the other games do, which is an understandable sentiment, but one that doesn't do enough for me to make it better than 3 or 5. I also feel that it's not even necessarily true and only feels this way because they fit the "high school best friends" archetype the best. Personally, the found family aspect of Persona 5 hit better for me, and even in Persona 3 I felt that even though they were often times more reserved with each other, it made the personal moments between each character feel more earned and special.

It also has the most dated feeling "humor" in the whole series, somehow topping out even Persona 3 in that regard. The "be your true self" meme about this game is sadly kind of true, and the constant fat shaming and digs at Kanji for being "gay" never really rub me the right way. Sure, it's very "high school", but ultimately it just ends up clashing with its own themes too much for the sake of cheap laughs. Also, Teddie is far worse than Morgana and Koromaru is obviously best boy, so yeah.

The way the final boss is handled was very cool, but often times the murder mystery aspect felt like more of a drag to me than the progression of the other games.

Those are nitpicks of course, and I still think it's a great game, but I had to express my reasons for not liking it as much as 3 or 5.

A game that I did not expect to enjoy quite as much as I did. I had always heard good things about the Persona series, but I wasn't expecting to fall in love with it. Any game that is over 100 hours long, but makes me feel sad to reach its conclusion, has achieved something pretty special.

This is a game with a very large cast of characters, so it says something that most of them are really solid. The story is excellent, although it does start to become a bit stale once you pass the midpoint. It was a noticeable issue, but one that is thankfully rectified by an amazing final stretch.

It also has one of the best soundtracks in gaming. The songs are funky and have gone on to my regular rotation to listen to on my own time, and some are memorable enough that I feel a bit emotional when I hear them and think back to the moments I spent hearing them and spending time with characters from this game.

The writing is a bit on the nose sometimes, but it's full of heart and at the end of the day that's what ended up mattering to me the most. This game has a lot it wants to say, but ultimately, the found family aspect of the experience is quite likely its best part.

I like Persona 3 more, but this game fully deserves 5 stars.

I haven't played Persona 1 or 2 yet, so I can't say if this is the best Persona game, but it's certainly the best between 3, 4, and 5. It doesn't beat out Persona 5 Royal by a whole lot, as that's a very special game as well, but to me this just edges it.

The plot can feel a bit meandering and back ended, but the way it expresses its themes is an emotional tour de force that has left a permanent impact on me, many years after having beaten it and even after multiple replays.

The soundtrack is beautiful, up there as one of the best(with the best final boss theme out of 3, 4, and 5). I wasn't sold on the cast of characters in the beginning stages but the growth and arcs they go through are very well done and very effective.

Its combat and dungeon system feel more dated than that found in 4 and 5, and some of the Social Links are either not that great or feel a bit too short, but everything else about the game elevates it to a different level.

Memento mori.

This is the best piece of Star Wars media that has even been released.

I wanted to knock it down a half star for being what is essentially an incomplete game, but at the end of the day it still stands as one of the best games I've ever played and the flaws it has never interfered with my personal enjoyment of it, nor the sense of fulfillment I had when the thematic core of this story came into full force.

This is a game with something to say and it is not afraid to do so, and it led to some truly incredible and iconic moments.

Gameplay is also quite fun, with a D&D combat style adapted to Star Wars that works fairly well, especially considering its age.

The soundtrack is solid, the atmosphere is good, and the characters are mostly interesting except for a couple that feel either incomplete or slightly shoehorned.

If you enjoyed the first KOTOR, you should give this game a chance. Some people may prefer the more traditional and safe storytelling in the first game, but this one, to me, is far more interesting.

Up there in a constant battle with NieR: Automata as my favorite game of all time.

I love this game for a lot of similar reasons that I love Automata, but there are some key differences as well, and ultimately if I were to attempt some semblance of objectivity I would proabably have to say that Automata is the better video game.

But is it the better experience overall? That, I'm not too sure about.

This game boasts another masterful soundtrack, on par or perhaps even better than Automata. The story is also incredible, and while it is on a smaller scale to Automata, it is incredibly effective and thematically potent. The characters here are some of the best I've seen in any game, and are probably even better than the ones in Automata.

Gameplay, as you might expect, is a fair bit better in Automata. Although both games suffer from some frankly terrible difficulty scaling, it is far more noticeable and egregious in Replicant. This is mostly due to the fact that despite a similar situation with enemies either dying too quickly or taking too long to defeat depending on your difficulty setting, in Replicant the enemies are not particularly interesting or complex in their mechanics. This means that even on hard, they're not particularly difficult. They simply take a long time before they go down, and the whole time you're unlikely to ever feel like you're in much danger.

Side quests in Automata are also much more interesting, and it has a similar "Route" system where you'll replay certain sections of the game that feels far more repetitive than it did in Automata.

That said, this game packs an emotional gut punch that is quite a bit stronger than Automata(which is saying something). The characters in Automata are layered and interesting, but here, they are complex in ways that you rarely ever see stories dare to tread, and they're handled in the signature subtlety that the NieR series is so adept at.

Running around the world of Replicant, mechanically at least, feels quite dated and can begin to grow stale if your focus is on the gameplay.

For me, however, the music and story of the game gave me such a deep seated sense of melancholy that I never felt like I was simply running around doing fetch quests. I was right there with the characters on their journey, and as the gorgeous soundtrack continued to play in the background, I felt connected to the world in a way I rarely do in games, particularly once the reveals began to kick in.

And at the end of it all, I didn't walk away feeling I played a better game than Automata, but I walked away feeling I had somehow walked away even more emotionally impacted than it.

Possibly the best video game I've had the good fortune of experiencing. It's possible that I do the game a disservice by piling such high praise on it, because when going into something with high expectations only to not be immediately enraptured by it can be quite a jarring experience. I can totally understand how someone wouldn't understand the hype after the first few hours.

Regardless, this game has touched me in ways that few other pieces of media or entertainment ever have. Although I can see some of its flaws, (namely the slightly repetitive nature of Route B and the balancing of its difficulty, which can be either too easy or hard depending on your level) it is an experience that resonates deeply within my soul.

This is in large part due to the story, the characters, and the soundtrack. Despite the drab color palette, the gorgeous music encapsulates the themes and the characters so well that I felt incredibly connected to them when I was just running from Point A to Point B. The movement is also very fluid, both in and out of combat, so just exploring the world always felt satisfying. The side content adds a subtle depth to the world, and even the main story itself is carefully layered in a masterful subtlety where, if you're paying attention, you will never tire of being curious about. When the game is first starting out you will get the sense that there is more here that you can't quite see or understand yet, and once those layers begin to peel back you will get only more and more intrigued.

The phrase "what it means to be human" is used so often that it feels somewhat trite at times, but this game made me feel human in ways that only the absolute best pieces of media can. It was a joy to experience this game in all its splendor and I cannot recommend it enough.

Play Replicant first though, it'll hit a bit harder if you do.