Another tremendous story in the Xenoblade universe. Set as a prequel to the events of 3, Future Redeemed ties off the core remaining threads surrounding the events in the game and for all intents and purposes, this is more Xenoblade 3 which is a win in my book.
In terms of gameplay/structure, it is very similar to the base game. There are obviously some minor differences due to lore reasons, but battles play out much the same way as you are accustomed to. The real big difference here for me is actually outside combat - in the map screen. Future Redeemed features a comprehensive checklist of all the collectibles on the map. Ether currents, Unique Monsters, Locations, Chests, etc. Furthermore, a new mechanic is also added to eventually mark unfound items of interest on the map. This is incredibly beneficial for exploration, and pushed me over the edge to have almost everything done by the time I had finished with the expansion. The "Community" feature that was a big focus in the Torna expansion is back too, and its worth setting out to try and "complete" the community.
As I mentioned earlier, Future Redeemed sets out to answer a lot of the questions left open by the base game. It does a commendable job with a cast of great characters and cutscenes that do them a great service. As always, the soundtrack is stellar too with a good mix of new and old tracks. It was a bit shorter than Torna as my almost-done-everything save file has me at 23 hours, which is still a pretty respectable length. I'm not sure if this marks the end of the Xenoblade franchise as we know it, but if it does this is as good of a sendoff as it could have gotten.
In terms of gameplay/structure, it is very similar to the base game. There are obviously some minor differences due to lore reasons, but battles play out much the same way as you are accustomed to. The real big difference here for me is actually outside combat - in the map screen. Future Redeemed features a comprehensive checklist of all the collectibles on the map. Ether currents, Unique Monsters, Locations, Chests, etc. Furthermore, a new mechanic is also added to eventually mark unfound items of interest on the map. This is incredibly beneficial for exploration, and pushed me over the edge to have almost everything done by the time I had finished with the expansion. The "Community" feature that was a big focus in the Torna expansion is back too, and its worth setting out to try and "complete" the community.
As I mentioned earlier, Future Redeemed sets out to answer a lot of the questions left open by the base game. It does a commendable job with a cast of great characters and cutscenes that do them a great service. As always, the soundtrack is stellar too with a good mix of new and old tracks. It was a bit shorter than Torna as my almost-done-everything save file has me at 23 hours, which is still a pretty respectable length. I'm not sure if this marks the end of the Xenoblade franchise as we know it, but if it does this is as good of a sendoff as it could have gotten.