It is an effective, well-paced conclusion to the series thematically.
I like that exploration is rewarded because you get really useful combat skills/arts and various satisfying fills to your Affinity Goals. The exploration overall is solid enough as it was in the base game; in combination with the DLC's short length this is really the only time I felt like near-completing a Xenoblade game (I'll pass on the superbosses and final Enemypedia entries for now, but I 100%ed everything else).
My biggest gripe with the DLC is that it leans way too much into Xenoblade 1 fanservice for me, and as a result I wish more of the areas (and the final boss) had more of a unique identity visually and atmospherically. At least writing wise it's still very much Xenoblade 3 throughout which is a good thing.
I also wish Aurora Shelf's music wasn't re-used for Ragmos Desolation. It's a nice theme but you hear it a lot throughout the 20-30hrs.
Playing this DLC also kind of just finalized my general stance towards the series as a whole - I like the writing and a lot of the ideas, I love a lot of the presentation elements, but a lot of the gameplay and combat elements just were never my thing since I played Xenoblade 1 years ago. Particularly for similar reasons I dislike ATB combat from the Squaresoft-era: there isn't much slow, methodical strategy (i.e. learning enemy/boss patterns) and combat is more just wailing attacks at the enemy, occasionally scrambling to heal and regroup, and then Chain Attacking for overkills. Most of the fun in gameplay comes from making builds and finding more effective (and broken) ways to put down an enemy before they can fuck you up hard. That is appealing to many fans, and while I had my own share of fun with that in Xenoblade 2 and 3 especially, it's just not my main action game gameplay vibe ultimately.
I could probably say a lot more, such as what I feel about the characters, but I'll leave these thoughts here for now.
I like that exploration is rewarded because you get really useful combat skills/arts and various satisfying fills to your Affinity Goals. The exploration overall is solid enough as it was in the base game; in combination with the DLC's short length this is really the only time I felt like near-completing a Xenoblade game (I'll pass on the superbosses and final Enemypedia entries for now, but I 100%ed everything else).
My biggest gripe with the DLC is that it leans way too much into Xenoblade 1 fanservice for me, and as a result I wish more of the areas (and the final boss) had more of a unique identity visually and atmospherically. At least writing wise it's still very much Xenoblade 3 throughout which is a good thing.
I also wish Aurora Shelf's music wasn't re-used for Ragmos Desolation. It's a nice theme but you hear it a lot throughout the 20-30hrs.
Playing this DLC also kind of just finalized my general stance towards the series as a whole - I like the writing and a lot of the ideas, I love a lot of the presentation elements, but a lot of the gameplay and combat elements just were never my thing since I played Xenoblade 1 years ago. Particularly for similar reasons I dislike ATB combat from the Squaresoft-era: there isn't much slow, methodical strategy (i.e. learning enemy/boss patterns) and combat is more just wailing attacks at the enemy, occasionally scrambling to heal and regroup, and then Chain Attacking for overkills. Most of the fun in gameplay comes from making builds and finding more effective (and broken) ways to put down an enemy before they can fuck you up hard. That is appealing to many fans, and while I had my own share of fun with that in Xenoblade 2 and 3 especially, it's just not my main action game gameplay vibe ultimately.
I could probably say a lot more, such as what I feel about the characters, but I'll leave these thoughts here for now.