Xenoblade Chronicles 2 wastes your time with slow battles and inflated healthbars. It wastes your time with slow menus and long load screens. It wastes your time with having to play a gacha in order to fill requirements to progress both main and side content. It wastes your time with asking you to open a blade's skill tree every single time a skill is unlocked, otherwise the unlock won't take effect. It wastes your time with a story that lacks real direction and sense of progression towards the main goal for over half of its runtime. It wastes your time with tone-deaf japanese anime tropes and gags. It wastes your time with cutscenes where lipflaps never match dubbed dialogue.

But I think, after all that, the breaking point was being asked to wait real-world time for merc missions to complete. Missions which are critical to completing the game's thorough side content, and missions which unlock QoL static upgrades like boosted movement speed and gold gain. Missions which can take nearly two hours to complete just one if you haven't gotten good enough luck with your gacha pulls to lower the time. Missions which ask the player to wait to be able to play more of the game they paid for.

It's a game with a disgusting lack of respect for its players and should be treated with an equal disrespect.

Reviewed on Feb 27, 2024


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