This review contains spoilers
My opinions here will change overtime, as all Xenoblade games have for me. But for now, this is what I think.
The story is almost perfect, it has the best Xenoblade cast. Noah and Mio really are highlights of this game, those two are indisputably my favorite duo in gaming perhaps. Noahs character in relation to the best villain with the game really showed how Noah can act under horrible circumstances. It's not afraid to shy away from showing us a flawed protagonist. However, I have one huge issue with this plot, I dont like how easily death is trivialised. A lot of characters end up being brought back to life or having fake deaths. To me, this can take away from the stakes of the plot at times. Like during Chapter 6's best cutscene, while it was upsetting to see who died, I knew deep down they would pull something to avoid the jaws of death yet again like most important characters in this game. Some characters are killed off, but not the super important ones. This is in stark contrast to Xenoblade 2 where it wasn't afraid to kill off super important characters to show how dire things can get. I also think after Chapter 6 the game loses a lot of it's luster until the end. But despite these issues, I still think this plot is incredible due to the main cast and world building.
The battle system is interesting. I really like it, the addition of classes over blades simplifies the blade system but it's not too simplified like Xenoblade 1. Chain attacks are easy to spam out and Ouroboros are good to use in a pinch. I really enjoyed the battle system, it was getting a bit tiring during the final dungeon but overall I think it was fantastic. The music is amazing, too bad I cant hear it over the characters screaming out all their attack moves in battle lol.
Final thoughts: An amazing JRPG with the highest peaks, but can feel inconsistent at times. A must play in my books.
The story is almost perfect, it has the best Xenoblade cast. Noah and Mio really are highlights of this game, those two are indisputably my favorite duo in gaming perhaps. Noahs character in relation to the best villain with the game really showed how Noah can act under horrible circumstances. It's not afraid to shy away from showing us a flawed protagonist. However, I have one huge issue with this plot, I dont like how easily death is trivialised. A lot of characters end up being brought back to life or having fake deaths. To me, this can take away from the stakes of the plot at times. Like during Chapter 6's best cutscene, while it was upsetting to see who died, I knew deep down they would pull something to avoid the jaws of death yet again like most important characters in this game. Some characters are killed off, but not the super important ones. This is in stark contrast to Xenoblade 2 where it wasn't afraid to kill off super important characters to show how dire things can get. I also think after Chapter 6 the game loses a lot of it's luster until the end. But despite these issues, I still think this plot is incredible due to the main cast and world building.
The battle system is interesting. I really like it, the addition of classes over blades simplifies the blade system but it's not too simplified like Xenoblade 1. Chain attacks are easy to spam out and Ouroboros are good to use in a pinch. I really enjoyed the battle system, it was getting a bit tiring during the final dungeon but overall I think it was fantastic. The music is amazing, too bad I cant hear it over the characters screaming out all their attack moves in battle lol.
Final thoughts: An amazing JRPG with the highest peaks, but can feel inconsistent at times. A must play in my books.