Finally got around to playing this properly when it came to Switch. This is now my favorite RPG series, period. In terms of this game, the characters are all likeable and memorable (besides maybe Riki but he's the comic relief so whatever), the plot, while basic at first, evolves into one of the best stories in games. The combat isn't quite as involved as later games, but regardless it's a great system that's satisfying to master, with plenty of party customization to go along with it. I absolutely want to play this game again in the near future, it's a genuine masterpiece.

Oh and also, it's Reyn time all the time.

Xenoblade 2 is complicated. In some ways it's better than the original, and in other ways, it's one of the most frustrating games I've experienced in a while.
This game absolutely nails its world building. Learning about Alrest as you play, the different cultures, environments, the conflicts between kingdoms, the relationship between humans and blades, it's all super interesting stuff, and had me way more invested than the first game.
While I love the Bionis and Mechonis in the original, the titans here are so much more fun to explore, and they look really pretty too. Unfortunately though, that's all brought down by field skills. Having your exploration halted constantly because you don't have the right blades in your party, or maybe their skills just aren't leveled up enough, it sucks. I don't understand why this was necessary at all.
The cast of characters here is amazing, and while not all of them are my favorites in the series, Tora and Morag come to mind as pretty underutilized characters, they're all fun to watch and play as, and there's not a single character in this game that I hate, which is more than I can say for the other games. The issue comes with the character designs though. It is so distracting how every female character in this game is designed to arouse the audience, and it a lot of the time, kills the tension of a scene when the camera decides to focus on a character's revealing outfit when something important is happening in the story. On top of that is the gacha system and I don't think I need to explain why it's terrible.
Combat in this game is more fun than the original...once you actually figure it out. This game is terrible at teaching the player how anything works, and not only that, the game really limits you in the beginning hours. Rex and Nia only get one extra blade each, and chain attacks just aren't allowed for a while, and it makes the beginning of this game feel really slow and tedious. Bosses are also designed horribly in this game. They're not fun to fight, they're just frustrating, and often rely on trial and error as you mess around with your party for the 5th time wondering why Malos is able to wipe the floor with you at seemingly random.
I was really enjoying the combat later on, but unfortunately, by the time I was really getting the hang of it and having a lot of fun with it, the game was basically over.
I'm sure I'd enjoy this much more on a second playthrough, but that doesn't change the fact that there are just too many issues here for me to consider this better than the original, even with all of its elements that are an improvement.

When I first played this game, I absolutely loved it, my favorite in the series, no contest.
However, Xenoblade 3 is the perfect example of media that gets worse and worse the more you look back on it. There are so many little things here that bring this game down for me and I'm not sure whether I like this or Xenoblade 2 more. That would've been crazy for me to say a few months ago, but here we are.
First off, the party. This is the best Xenoblade party, period. I love all six of these characters and their journey together. I grew so attached to them as I played. I unfortunately can not say the same about anybody else. There are a few heroes that I liked, but none of them are really that memorable. The villains are also terrible, not just for Xenoblade standards either, they're so one note that it's painful. I could not care less about any of these guys. When the last villains were Malos and Jin, that's insane.
The world design is not very interesting either, and that brings me to my biggest problem with this game. I hate the world merging narrative.
Every area in this game, minus the city, is just areas from the first two games, merged together. It's dull, there is not a single area in the game I liked exploring.
This hurts the game's story too. It can't seem to make up its mind on whether it wants to be a big fan service finale, or its own unique story about the weight of life and what the horrors of war do to people. Because of this, it sucks at both of them and nothing feels fleshed out enough.
I also think Monolith took the criticism of Xenoblade 2 to heart a little too much? There were plenty of complaints that Xenoblade 2 isn't very accessible and does a terrible job at easing the player into the game, and rightfully so. But Xenoblade 3's solution to this seems to be to oversimplify the story to the point where...they just don't explain anything. Things just happen in this story and you have to just accept it and move on because the characters aren't interested in explaining anything. Because of that, this story feels pretty hollow and it's really frustrating. Along with that, characters also have their arcs in side stories a lot of the time so if you happen to miss those, tough luck I guess.
I will say that the combat here is my favorite out of all the games. Xenoblade 2 has more satisfying combat by the end, but there's no beating around the bush here, it's fun the whole way through. Not even this is without its issues though. When you unlock new classes, they're only available for one specific character, and you have to grind to unlock them for the rest of your party. Why? That's just pointless padding, there's no need for that. Plus, you can only unlock classes for the rest of your party if you're actively using said class, and fighting enemies at around the same level as you, in a game where you can't delevel until post game. That's ridiculous.
This game is just frustrating. I can see the potential here, I really can, but it just doesn't hit the mark. While I found Xenoblade 2 frustrating because of the questionable design choices it has and what it does do, I find Xenoblade 3 frustrating because of how much it doesn't do.

As surprising as this is, Torna is one of my favorite games of all time, coming off of Xenoblade 2 and how frustrating it is.
Every issue I had with the base game is fixed here...for the most part. Since it's a prequel with a lot of the same characters, there's still the issue of character designs. I still hate them.
Besides that though, I have no issues here. The cast of characters is amazing here, Lora and Addam are great additions and are among my favorite Xenoblade characters. Mythra is given so much more depth here that was missing in the base game. The same goes for Jin, my favorite Xenoblade villain beside Malos.
Gameplay wise, it's such an improvement. Combat is really fun from the start, and switching characters in the middle of a fight adds an element of strategy the base game didn't have. Chain attacks are super fast and satisfying here too.
The biggest point of criticism with this game is the community system. In my opinion though, it's great. I love putting the effort in to help these characters, and you really feel the community grow to appreciate you more and more as you help them. Addam is a legend in the base game and this game makes it clear how much of an impact he had on the people of Torna. The ending is so much more impactful after how much you've done for the community too.
While I consider Xenoblade 1 to be the best experience all things considered, Torna is absolutely my favorite in the series to play. Xenoblade 2 may be quite the mess, but we did get something amazing out of it.