Ok this will be long so bucle up:

- New Graphics/Art Design: is not nearly as bad as everyone says, on the contrary, it's pretty good, the thing that pushes everyone back is that the 3 main female characters has new faces that goes far beyond from her previous dollish/anime faces.

- Gameplay: It's not bad, it's more complex (and fun imo) than the previous gameplay, but there are 2 things that makes it more annoying:
1) Mech combat definitely got way less flexible despite having a new copilot system.
2) It's way buff dependant. If you're not buffing and stocking all the time you won't be doing any damage, this is specially annoying when you're fighting normal enemies (yes, you have to do all those process).

- Game Design: You hated that the previous game was like 65% cutscenes and little to no gameplay? Well, in this secuel YOU HAVE EVEN LESS GAMEPLAY. How much less? the kind of "there is so little gameplay that you have literally no stores and gameplay and dungeon designs are made to extend the game as much as it can" kind of less gameplay.
That's right, there's no weapons or armor to equip, the only buffs (that are obligatory to get if you don't wanna be destroyed by the game) are the skills that you get via sidequests. Are the sidequest any good? They're your typical fetch quest that doesn't expand the story or the universe. Only a few are interesting because they introduce either a unique character or boss...
Also, even tho they thankfully reduced the Ether, Tech, and Skill points to only Skill Points and you can see the abilities to unlock and their descriptions, there is still a point wall. How big? the kind of big that the best way of farming skill points is to kill again and again the final boss and eat the cutsecenes and credits again and again.

Story: I came to the conclution that Xenosaga has cool concepts, but Takahashi definitely doesn't know how to tell his story, Xenosaga just throws at you so many cutscenes, flashbacks, concepts and stuff and they just expect you to care.
I don't hold any hope for Xenosaga 3 to be a master piece or be so good that make playing the 2 previous games and watching a whole video worth it.
Whole video? That's right, because in between chapter 2 and 3 there's a whole missing year... because, maybe, and just maybe Takahashi, it's not a good idea to make the first game of your new company A SIX PART STORY AND START WITH THE EQUIVALENT OF A PROLOGUE... you need to have a sales success in order to plan a game franchise this long, and making games that are like 70% cutscenes with a story poorly told is NOT A VERY GOOD IDEA, WHY WOULD YOU TOLD A STORY IN A GAME FORMAT IF YOU BARELY LET THE PLAYERS PLAY?

- Final Thoughts: despite my rant, I still like Xenosaga, why? I dunno... maybe I like the concepts, maybe it just clicks with me or maybe I'm just blinded by Xenogears or something, but I'm still playing Xenosaga 3.
Still, I can't turn a blind eye to all the problems that these games have, at this point, I can't recommend this series like Xenogears that despite it's problems, the story and concepts are one of the best ever made.
The only way for these games to be worth playing and recommend it, is if the episode 3 is a master piece, and at the moment, that's a very VERY slim and far away chance.

PS: for those of you that still wants to rock the xenosaga boat, here's the video of the missing year, thank you Smartest Moron for taking the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo74bgiHd4&t=9s

Gonna be honest and quick:

1) This game is like 65% cutscenes, and they're long, some of them have save points in between them.

2) Most of the story of this game it's just a setting for the next games. This is more evident because the game does A LOT OF INFO DUMP, the game is literally throwing a lot of concepts and therms and you'll have to remember it for the next games.

3) Gameplay is well done, the only complain I have is that a lot of the abilities (Ether, Skill and Tech) are behind walls of points that you won't be able to obtain without grinding the shit out of this game, that's a really poor decision given how little gameplay is on the game.
It's a shame, that you can't get to experiment with all the abilities because of this, and also because there's no point, becuase yes, there're some optional bosses, but there's no fucking way that those bosses demands that amount of grinding also because if you get the 6 robot parts, you unlock the Erde kaiser, and that mech can do 9999 points of damage ignoring all defense to all enemies, and only 2 end game enemies have enough health to survive that.
Not complaining, I love those kind of things in rpgs, because it rewards you for exploring the game, it's just weird that the developers block 40% of your abilities behind point walls, but they're ok with giving you this thing with no penalization...

Recommendations:
- I'll share with yall the HD pack for every Xenosaga game for the PCSX2, for those who wants them. Tnx to Panda_Venom for doing and sharing these packs: https://gbatemp.net/threads/xenosaga-trilogy-usa-hd-remaster.612395/

- The best team is Shion, Jr and Kosmos by far.
- Save your Tech Points for all characters for their lasts Tech Skills. You can use some of these points to upgrade the speed of the firsts tech attacks that can target all enemies tho, it will help you through the game.
- Save and use Kosmos Tech Points to only upgrade X-Buster tho, trust me, that thing is versatile and broken and it'll help you a lot. Only like 3 bosses are resistant to that attack, but the other characters will be support enough.
- Unlock Shion's "Boost 1" and "Quick" Ether Skills and transfer them to your other main party members. (Medica/Goodbye/Boost 1 and Analyze/Refresh/Quick to unlock them)
- Gather the six robot parts to get Erde Kaiser, that'll do 9999 points of damage ignoring all defense to all enemies to speedrun the final part of the game if you're tired and just want to be over with it.
Use the Angel Ring to half the cost of EP that the mech demands and play Poker Level 4 on the casino, obtain 10000 points and buy 99 of the first pack to have 99 ethers so you can spam the hell out of Erde Kaiser.

Final thought: Even tho I liked it, only when I finish the series will I know if this game was worth playing.

If you're a Nier fan hear me out:

1) THE STORY IS EXTREMELLY GOOD, it's way worth watching it, it's on pair with the other 2 Nier games, this IS Nier 3, not because Yoko Taro says so, it's because the game's blatantly clear about it.
But most importantly, the story of Reincarnation fills all the holes and doubts in the Nier lore, I literally can't picture a 4th Nier game unless it's thousands of years in the future, but...

2) Gameplay SUCKS, it's not a good game, even for gacha standarts...
The gameplay it's just mash buttons or put auto-mode and make big numbers, if you have low numbers, you can't access Nier lore and have to go to make some pulls or use your sweet credit card.
And when I say you have to use your credit card, I mean you have to use it A LOT, because the grinding required to pass some stupid walls to continue the story is ASTRONOMIC. How ASTRONOMIC? Well, first wall can ask you for 5000 cristals and second wall ask you for 12000 OR 18000 OF THEM!!!
And don't think about using an emulator, yes you can use Macros to make grinding automatic and make sure you get those cristals (because yes, not only you have limited attempts but the fights not always leave you cristals, only the hardest quests guarantee you some) but due to it's gacha nature, your play time is limited with stamina, and it takes 24hs to refill it.

My recommendation:

- First (and this is optional), read the 10H mini-novel "A Much Too Silent Sea".
It's not mandatory, but it gives you context, it's like watching Ant-Man 2 to understand why in Endgame Scott was trapped in that machine.
Here's 10H novel: https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/A_Much_Too_Silent_Sea

2) Watch, the story on youtube. Again THE STORY IS REALLY WORTH WATCHING, but do not lose your time playing this thing.
The story is divided in 3 seasons and is already finished. The story of the 3 seasons together last almost 20hs.
I'll put the videos for all the seasons down below.
Shout out to BuffMaister for his hard work.

Season 1 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbE-6D_dLPA&list=PLaoKfFfkcXxCHnkLqjm6DUKWpgBaqVBjQ&index=22

Season 2 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whQCIqiGds8&t=15880s

Season 3 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAam56qxIK0&t=25197s

And finally, it's a shame that Yoko Taro decided to make the 3rd Nier game a gacha... If this story was made in any other game format (aside of a light novel) it would easily be a master piece on pair with the other 2 games.
It pains me that a story this good and this beautiful won't be discovered for a lot of people because of this greedy and poor decision.