Despite being the most critically acclaimed game of the legendary xeno metaseries by director Tetsuya Takahashi this is by far one of the most overrated games ever released, the game took everything that made the series so special in the first place (Incredibly human emotionally potent stories full of religious and philosophical influences) and replaced it with generic Shōnen anime tropes that you can find in any jrpg, with weak character writing. On the side of the gameplay the game is the perfect example of quantity over quality with giant areas and 0 level design combine with a battle system based on cooldows and very little depth compare to both the previous xeno games as well as the new xenoblade games. The only way you could think this is a masterpiece is if its your first serious jrpg and arent used to this tropes