Xenoblade 2 was my first Xenoblade game, probably as with many others. I loved so many aspects of it, but back when I played it for the first time, I also did not appreciate a lot of annoying QoL issues as well as fundamental design choices.
Fast-forward now, I've played 1 on Wii, 3 and DE, along with Torna and Future Connected, and I capped off my Xenoblade run with an NG+ run I've been meaning to do for years now.
One thing I imemdiately noticed that I somehow forgot before was that Rex is actually an incredibly mature character. His first lines are about how the world is ending and wondering what he can do about it. And with that, the game starts off much somber than I initially remembered.
This hint of heavier themes persist throughout and when it does become the focus of the game in later chapters, especially from chapter 6 and onwards, I appreciated that it wasn't just a sudden tonal shift, but a carefully laid out storytelling that was building up for this change. Outside of Torah, who provides much needed comic relief in the later chapters, every character harbours a darker and serious side to them, and they never feel like a simple one dimensional characters; they are not morally "grey," but they understand the darker side of the world and deal with them in their own ways. Even Poppi is turned out to be a less of an anime trope and a character with dilemma and anxiety as you progress. All of this coincides with later chapters' twists after twists, and how they all come together is absolutely satisfying.
Combat is also different from the third game to be just dismissed as the "worse" version of it. Different blades builds, as well as how blade and driver combos can be set up, mean that the combat has a different kind of depth than the third game which focuses more on the class system. Add in the fact that it is the only game in the series with auto attack cancel (not the art cancel, which also exists in Xenoblade 3) being a fundamental skill, the combat's tempo is very different from the first or the third game. There is also the affinity rings where each blade's growth is unique and often requires doing specific things that are tied to their character and their own blade quests. All rare blades are not only unique in appearance and how the play, but how they develop as well. This culminates to a unique system that positively impacts how blades function in the game as well as the diegesis.
Fast-forward now, I've played 1 on Wii, 3 and DE, along with Torna and Future Connected, and I capped off my Xenoblade run with an NG+ run I've been meaning to do for years now.
One thing I imemdiately noticed that I somehow forgot before was that Rex is actually an incredibly mature character. His first lines are about how the world is ending and wondering what he can do about it. And with that, the game starts off much somber than I initially remembered.
This hint of heavier themes persist throughout and when it does become the focus of the game in later chapters, especially from chapter 6 and onwards, I appreciated that it wasn't just a sudden tonal shift, but a carefully laid out storytelling that was building up for this change. Outside of Torah, who provides much needed comic relief in the later chapters, every character harbours a darker and serious side to them, and they never feel like a simple one dimensional characters; they are not morally "grey," but they understand the darker side of the world and deal with them in their own ways. Even Poppi is turned out to be a less of an anime trope and a character with dilemma and anxiety as you progress. All of this coincides with later chapters' twists after twists, and how they all come together is absolutely satisfying.
Combat is also different from the third game to be just dismissed as the "worse" version of it. Different blades builds, as well as how blade and driver combos can be set up, mean that the combat has a different kind of depth than the third game which focuses more on the class system. Add in the fact that it is the only game in the series with auto attack cancel (not the art cancel, which also exists in Xenoblade 3) being a fundamental skill, the combat's tempo is very different from the first or the third game. There is also the affinity rings where each blade's growth is unique and often requires doing specific things that are tied to their character and their own blade quests. All rare blades are not only unique in appearance and how the play, but how they develop as well. This culminates to a unique system that positively impacts how blades function in the game as well as the diegesis.