!!! SPOILERS FOR XENOBLADE 1 AND 2 !!!

To preface this:
- I started this game directly after playing Xenoblade 1 Definitive Edition for 100 hours. thats why i bring it up so much. also it's a sequel i think it's fair to compare it to a previous entry.
- I have not played the Torna DLC or Xenoblade 3
- Did not proofread this. It's a bit messy and unorganized. sorry :]
- I don't know what a "full stop" or "shift key" is
- I would not describe myself as "good at analysis" or "having a great memory" so if i get something wrong here. ummmm.
- This was originally written for a friend on discord with the intention of it being a short summary of my thoughts and then it got out of control. so if the tone is weird that's probably why. did not edit it to post here
- english not first language

anyway. review time

REALLY rocky start but it gets good. it takes too long to get there though imo cause that point for me was ~27 hours in. a game should not have to use that much time to convince me (xeno 1 got good by the mechon attack, which is like what, an hour in?). also it felt like they were trying to pull a fiora with vandham but that did not work very well. idk if that was bc we didn't get enough time to care about him or if it was just the presentation of it all.

story ended up being alright though they pulled through in the end. it just takes ssssso long for the stakes to be set up properly. like xeno 1 sets up the mechon immediatly, and getting revenge/protecting your town is a good motivator that's easy to empathise with yknow. xeno 2's "i promised an anime girl i found i'd take her to heaven" just does not have the same drive. and i know jin and malos are right there from the start but it just does not show off quite how much of a threat they are.

the ending was good though!!! the ending was good. mostly. legitimately got a little sad over pythra Fucking Dying. you do not kill god in this game which was a little strange considering JRPG traditions (and also the end of the previous game). i mean he dies anyway but still. the end was umm a little confusing but that may also just be me being dumb and/or tired (i finished the game at like 4 am). what the fuck was up with all that universe stuff. what was the deal with alvis. maybe this gets brought up in xeno 3 idk. ANYWAY the end was a little ambiguous (did pyra/mythra retain their memories? how's the new world gonna be? etc.) but i like that. lets u think a little. also there's a sequel.

a thing i thought was really cool though was each region having its own dialect. like they speak welsh in gormott, or scottish in mor ardain, etc. nice touch from the localization team i like that a lot. the blades are all american for some reason. which like SURE FINE i guess that's just another trait inherent to being a blade. it was a bit jarring at first but i think that was just pyra. it got better over time. there's no excuse for poppi though. she was built from the ground up by tora in gormott and yet still speaks american. whats up with that.

i know the voice acting in this game is a controversial topic so here's my take: it's fine for the most part. it doesn't sound that bad. except when it matters, of course. while some of the characters manage fine and sound good, others, and especially rex, really fall short in those scenes. i don't know exactly how to describe it, but it's like. the emotion isn't quite there. like a character will be animated crying screaming throwing up at whatever tragic just happened but the tone of their words just sound kind of upset at worst. also unrelated to voice acting but the mouth animations in this game are atrocious


ok onto the characters. characters in this game range from "very good" to "they're certainly there". i completed the game without using tora outside sections the game forced me to. poppi still has her starter weapon. i hate tora and i am going to kick him like the football. poppi was okay though she just gets dragged down by having a shitty driver. using a nopon speech pattern does not help her. sorry poppi u deserved better.

i love morag but i think i just have a type. she didn't do anything really significant for the story and i wish she got her own plotline. the only main cast character without a "twist" i feel. like zeke/nia/rex are all varying degrees of blade (rex being the aegis' driver to boot), and tora has the whole artificial blade thing. why did tora get his own plotline it should have been morag. the mor ardain chapter should have had more focus on her but nooo let's dedicate the whole thing to tora's generational maid fetish. ANYWAY i like her personality that's what drew me in. it rly shines through especially in heart-to-hearts those r so fun. also her design absolutely Fucks i love that shit. though i don't really get why she got mistaken for a man so much she does not look like one. have you people never seen a woman wear a uniform.

rex is there. i still don't have many thoughts on him either way. there isn't anything wrong with him but there isn't anything special about him either. he's alright.

nia <3 she's so good. excellent. love her flesh eater subplot it adds so much to her character. her backstory is so good but also. did she eat her sister? anyway the signs were there for that so early i love foreshadowing. she goes thru so much character development too from pushing everyone away and straight up hating rex to treating the team like family and also declaring her love for rex. her coming out scene is great. the only thing i would change about her is the orientation of her ears why are they facing backward. they point the right way in her blade design. and also the bottom of her bodysuit in her blade form. also her sword in her artwork reminds me of a keyblade.

pythra started out so bad i did not think i would end up liking them as much as i did. they're so cringy and weird at the start and the game putting them in these weird anime boob scenes does NOT help their case. they develop really well though and the boob shit stops after a while. it shouldn't have been there in the first place but fine i'll take it. i did grow to like them though they have cute personalities. design is a different discussion. mythra was kind of a bitch at the start (i say this as a compliment) and i wish that trait didn't almost completely vanish though. even nia got to stay a bit cocky.

zeke and pandoria heart emoji i love comedic relief characters. they go together so well. i love the first few times you meet zeke before he joins the party where he does his cool guy act complete with poses and pandoria stands by him hitting the same poses. that's fantastic. he can also be serious when needed unlike SOMEONE (tora) who kills the mood almost every scene he's in. pandoria constantly taking shots at zeke (but also supporting him) is great. they should kiss. what the fuck kind of name is Ozychlyrus though.

VILLAINS the villains were good i liked the torna crew. malos had no redeeming qualities and didnt even try he just wanted to destroy the world that's perfect. jin was cool though he ended up being chill. did still try to kill me like 5 times. the minor/supporting characters in there (akhos, patroka, mikhail) were also so fun i'm so upset they died. just fucking killing them without any of them getting to complete their arcs was a baller move i kinda like it. someone should give jin a hug.

i don't know what the fuck goes down in the torna dlc but i think it should have been in the base game cause i feel like there were some missing pieces.

MECHANICS TIME this is the last part i promise we're almost done. anyway the mechanics sucked ass i hate all of them (this includes the ui). i don't even know where to start. this written from the perspective of me who started this right after playing 100 hrs of xeno 1

i hate the map. this is my biggest issue. the map system is messy.
in xeno 1 and 3, the area map fills out gradually as you explore. this is good. it helps me know where i've been and where i have yet to explore. xeno 2 gives you the whole area map when you reach a new area. how am i to know where i haven't visited yet. i have no idea where to look for new landmarks without ending up checking the same area 5 times. also if you accidentally open the map you have to press B like 5000 times to get back to the game.
also i don't like how each area is divided into many many sub-maps and not just all one big map w/layers like xeno 1. made it so hard to navigate.

also i want to mention the minimap here bc while the minimap is like, fine i guess, the mecanic around it is the most annoying shit ever. xeno 1 you can press L3 and your minimap will expand and show a larger area. press again and it goes back to normal. xeno 2 goes minimap > expanded map > expanded map (zoomed in) > no map. do you know how many times i went "where the fuck is my minimap"

the quest system ties into this. i did close to every sidequest in xeno 1 and almost none in 2 because of this quest system from hell.
you open your quest log. all your current sidequests are there. you can sort between completed and uncompleted. you cannot sort by area. the main quest does not show up in the quest log and i was 40 hrs in before i found out how to set it to be navigated to without completing the active sidequest.
you click on a quest. there is a short description along the lines of whatever the npc told you to do. you have to press another button to actually see the requirements for the quest. press B 500 times to get back to the overworld.

the quest navigation. is so bad. you open the map there is no indication of what area you need to be in. xeno 1 had a little ! beside the area your goal was in. xeno 2 has the tiniest little mark on the actual map preview and that's IT. you have to guess what map and submap that's gonna be in though. also the game does not tell you how to get to your destination just points an arrow directly to it (if youre in the right place) which would have been FINE if the MAPS WERENT SO GARBAGE

there are affection mechanics in this game and when i heard that i thought hell yeah sweet. cause i liked xeno 1's affection mechanics, it encouraged me to vary team composition and talk to npcs etc etc. xeno 2's system is... first of all not very well explained. i'm still not sure what things build trust. you can't re-read tuorials in this game either they show up once and thats it. if you forget things that sucks for you i guess. anyway affection in this game is built between driver and blade, not between party members. fine i guess. i guess varying team composition isn't as important when there's only 5 party members at most.

the skill trees tie into that. there are separate skill trees for drivers and blades. the system for the drivers i don't have any problem with, you get points from battle and you can use those to activate things on their tree. for blades, however.
the "rows" on their skill tree unlocks by building trust, for the most part. it takes a lot of time esp if you have many blades but whatever. the skills themselves are activated by completing specific tasks but most of them were so out of the way by the point i could activate them that i never bothered. like "defeat this specific unique monster in this nation"? with THIS map system? i don't think so.

the battle system is FINE i guess i didn't like it but i don't have any big problems with it. it was kinda boring but that might just be me. i miss having 8 arts handy but i guess getting to equip 3 blades made up for that. i miss good battle voice lines they added so much character to the first game. they're still here they're just not as good.


to conclude: xenoblade 2 was good and i don't recommend it