I played this years ago and enjoyed it quite a lot, however the confusing combat and poor tutorials definitely held it back from being one of my favorites. However, on my second playthrough it ended up becoming top 5 games because I understood the combat from the beginning. This is one of those games where coming back to it after a first playthrough makes the game more enjoyable. And on my third playthrough, I still love this game. It is no longer top 5 now as Octopath 2 stole that away, but this is still one of the best games I've ever played. This has bar none the best Xeno combat and some of the best JRPG combat in general. So overly complicated, so many systems to remember, so much strategy! Thats what makes it fun. It's not for everyone, but I love it. The blade gacha is annoying for sure, but you can get most rare blades casually. I just wish I got Kosmos this time around.

The story is my favorite in the Xeno trio. It's cast is about on par with 3s but what tips it in it's favor is that the villains are a million times better in this game. 3 had N, but this game has about 6 villains that are memorable in their own ways and have a lot of depth. I also think the world building and backstory in this game is the best and it arguably has the biggest revelations regarding the Klaus storyline.

It has some bad filler at times, the performance can be abysmal, the field skills suck, the menus are way too laggy and the localisation is genuinely abysmal. But, this game is still special to this day despite this.