The story is 5 stars and the gameplay is 3 so I'm meeting in the middle at a 4. I have a lot of feelings about this game. Its story is beautiful and kept me invested throughout the entire game. The gameplay, while fun for the first 25 hours, grew a bit stale for me towards the end. Each side quest is pretty much either a fetch quest or a kill this many monsters quest, which was fun at first, but when you've been doing them for hours it gets old. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Xenoblade Chronicles, and I look forward to playing the rest.