Biggest complaint is the slow grinding. I'm totally fine with grinding, and even enjoy it, but a lot of the animations are suuuuper slow and just drag on which I don't love. 2000s RPG, totally expected, but really my only complaint.

Story is a good first entry, looking forward to more. Foreshadowing and setup for the following games was really cool, but nothing crazy overall. The segment of the game that focused on Shion/Jr was really cool, and I like the themes discussed there a lot. Looking forward to playing Xenosaga 2 sometime soon!