I fucking love this game.
I feel lucky to have found an easy way to acquire it now, but I've been curious about X for years now. And surprise, it's amazing.
There's just so much to love that I can't quite sum up here, or i'll be writing pages for a fucking backloggd review lmao, i'll try to be brief.
The open world is amazing, the different biomes feel distinct yet fitting in the larger landscape of the setting, and exploring its every corner feels both rewarding and just super fun, ESPECIALLY when you unlock your giant robot and THEN when your giant robot FLIES. The biggest "holy shit" i've had was discovering the flight mechanics has next to no limits and I just had this huge, insane world completely within my reach. The world is big and dangerous and menacing, but it's also inviting, and fully discovering everything is made incredibly fun like nothing else.
Other aspects of the gameplay are also great. Now i can't pretend i understand the whole combat system, especially with the mechs, but it FEELS cool, and really, that's all that matters.
Just like 1 and 2, the game features a lot of sidequests, sometimes chains that unwrap throughout the story, and a lot of them give really neat development to the side cast and the setting at large, which makes them more like an addon to the main story rather than something i'd call "optional" content. It's genuinely great.
As for the main story, while I understand people felt underwhelmed since the actual plot itself is not that deep until like the last 5 hours of the game maybe, I've found the strong thematic and emotional core of the main characters' struggles to carry each chapter really nicely. Also, and this might be a hot take but..
...this game is clearly meant to have a sequel lol.
As for what we have on our hands standalone, I still appreciate it on its own merits, but there is next to no doubt in my mind an X2 would vindicate most of the criticism levied against X story-wise.
All in all, my one regret is not having had enough time to truly sink my teeth into every sidequest, affinity mission and other shenanigans because of pesky irl reasons. Maybe I will eventually come back to those, who knows. But for the meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles X has been an absolute blast and I cannot praise it highly enough.
I feel lucky to have found an easy way to acquire it now, but I've been curious about X for years now. And surprise, it's amazing.
There's just so much to love that I can't quite sum up here, or i'll be writing pages for a fucking backloggd review lmao, i'll try to be brief.
The open world is amazing, the different biomes feel distinct yet fitting in the larger landscape of the setting, and exploring its every corner feels both rewarding and just super fun, ESPECIALLY when you unlock your giant robot and THEN when your giant robot FLIES. The biggest "holy shit" i've had was discovering the flight mechanics has next to no limits and I just had this huge, insane world completely within my reach. The world is big and dangerous and menacing, but it's also inviting, and fully discovering everything is made incredibly fun like nothing else.
Other aspects of the gameplay are also great. Now i can't pretend i understand the whole combat system, especially with the mechs, but it FEELS cool, and really, that's all that matters.
Just like 1 and 2, the game features a lot of sidequests, sometimes chains that unwrap throughout the story, and a lot of them give really neat development to the side cast and the setting at large, which makes them more like an addon to the main story rather than something i'd call "optional" content. It's genuinely great.
As for the main story, while I understand people felt underwhelmed since the actual plot itself is not that deep until like the last 5 hours of the game maybe, I've found the strong thematic and emotional core of the main characters' struggles to carry each chapter really nicely. Also, and this might be a hot take but..
...this game is clearly meant to have a sequel lol.
As for what we have on our hands standalone, I still appreciate it on its own merits, but there is next to no doubt in my mind an X2 would vindicate most of the criticism levied against X story-wise.
All in all, my one regret is not having had enough time to truly sink my teeth into every sidequest, affinity mission and other shenanigans because of pesky irl reasons. Maybe I will eventually come back to those, who knows. But for the meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicles X has been an absolute blast and I cannot praise it highly enough.