What can I say that hasn’t already been said? This is Final Fantasy VII, a game that to this day still defines the RPG genre. I’d argue that this game is one of the most influential games of all time, not only in the vein of RPGs, but videogames in general. this isn’t my first time playing Final Fantasy VII, I originally played the game through the Switch port. But because of certain features that the port had (There was an option where it was nearly impossible to game over, for example), I felt like I missed a major component of what made Final Fantasy VII as beloved as it was. And finally, after all this time I finally got around to replaying Final Fantasy VII properly, and I’d like to say that I get it now.
The Active Time Battle system of Final Fantasy VII is amazing, though of course it’s not unique to VII. It was originally introduced in IV, but that’s neither here nor there. There’s a great sense of tension while you wait for your next turn to be available, hoping that an enemy doesn’t do something extremely bad, or kill one of your party members. However, while you wait for your next turn to be available, you’re able to strategize and think of what your next move is, as if the game designates this time for you to think. It’s a really fun back-and-forth that I don’t feel like Turn-Based or Real-Time Combat can emulate. The spells you can use have a MP requirement but also have a number of times you can use them during a battle, which I think is really neat. It means you can’t just repetitively use the same spell or summon over and over again, which provides a nice balance. As well, it reminds me of the Spell System in Final Fantasy III, which is something I really liked from that game. Fun little tidbit about my time with the game, I never knew how to run away from enemy encounters, if I even could. So I fought every enemy I came across.
Obviously one of the noticeable introductions found in Final Fantasy VII is Limit Breaks. Though Desperation Attacks were a thing in Final Fantasy VI, VII is the game where they’re more thoroughly implemented. In particular, Limit Break focuses on a specific meter that each character has, and that meter fills up as the character takes damage. Once the Limit Break is filled, that character can use a special move unique to them. Sometimes they’re offensive, sometimes they’re supportive, it ultimately depends. And that innately is another fun back-and-forth! In most RPGs, you’d want to avoid as much damage as possible, to keep your health and defenses high. But in a way, Limit Breaks reward you from taking damage, especially since the amount of damage taken influences how much of the bar is filled. I also really love how characters can gain new limit breaks as they progress through the game. I’m deranged so I grinded them out as soon as possible for the characters I like, but I appreciate that you obtain most of the limit breaks generally naturally throughout the game.
And of course, how can I not talk about the Materia system. The Materia system is definitely quite complex, and I can’t deny that I don’t understand the ins and outs of it. However from my time with the game, I grew to absolutely love the Materia system. Being able to equip Materia on a character, level that Materia up, and being able to switch that Materia between characters while keeping its level is super nice. It allows for so much easy customization and builds you can properly make. I remember having this great offensive build with Tifa, and a really fun Summoner build with Yuffie. Though there’s even more than just this too. Almost every Materia increase or decrease certain stats, typically HP and MP. Certain Materia can effect other Materia, and equipment can determine how much Materia you have at a time, or how fast it grows. It’s absolutely absurd just how much customization can come from the Materia system alone.
And going off of how much customization comes from the Materia system, I want to talk about this game’s difficulty curve, cause I find it interesting. Though this obviously is a “no duh” type of statement, Final Fantasy VII’s difficulty is intrinsically connected to your engagement with the Materia system. I’d argue that I had a harder time with the last boss of Disc 1 than I did any boss at the end of Disc 2, or the final boss. In fact, I utterly destroyed the last few bosses of the game, while I had difficulty with the bosses in the early game. Obviously this isn’t a criticism of the game, and I absolutely loved being able to shred these bosses with these characters I’ve crafted. I’m just noting that Final Fantasy VII isn’t a difficult game if you understand what you’re doing with the Materia System.
Obviously one of the biggest aspects to why Final Fantasy VII is beloved the way it is is because of the story. And I mean, yet again, what can I say that hasn’t already been said? I mean, partially I don’t know what I can say. This game, yes, has been talked about to death so many times, but I always know there’s at least someone who may see this, and have never experienced this game’s story in any capacity. So even though there’s extremely well known scenes in the game, they’re also ones that I don’t want to spoil because of the previously mentioned possibility. But with what I can say, Final Fantasy VII’s story is absolutely beautiful. Sephiroth is an amazing villain, though I wouldn’t consider him my #1 Final Fantasy villain (don’t worry, he’s second place though). The main cast of Final Fantasy VII is also one of the strongest of the series. Properly replaying the game allowed me to better appreciate characters like Cait Sith and Red XIII. And of course while I wont explain in much detail, I find the themes of Final Fantasy VII to be really beautiful in a way, and the ending is absolutely amazing.
So, that leaves me to ask, why did I not get this game when I first played this game? With how much I absolutely loved my time with it during this replay, it makes me wonder what I missed in the game when I originally played. And I think I understand. As I had mentioned, my original playthrough of the game was through the Switch Port, which had options you could turn on to make the game ridiculously easy. Because of that, I never had to properly engage with the game’s systems or challenges, and that in itself removed parts of the game I would’ve enjoyed otherwise. Alongside that, because I was using those options, It never really felt like I earned the progress I was given. Now that I’ve played through the game normally, I have earned that progression, and it felt really good to actually succeed in the game’s challenges.
And through it all, I definitely think I get Final Fantasy VII now. Yet again, it’s one of the most influential RPGs of all time, and that’s probably never going to change. While it’s not particularly my favorite Final Fantasy, I still absolutely loved my time with this game. There’s so much I absolutely loved here, and I’m so glad I can truly appreciate this game for what it is. I definitely would argue that Final Fantasy VII is one of those games where it is a must play. Regardless of if you like RPGs or not, Final Fantasy VII is an extremely influential game in the entire gaming landscape, and it’s a really good one to boot. It deserves to play played not from just a gameplay perspective, but from a historical one as well.

I'm not sure how to feel on this game.
Illusion of Gaia is far from a bad game, but to me it definitely feels like the weakest of the Quintet Trilogy.
To start with the positives, traveling through dungeons in this game is amazing. Clearing out rooms to unlock upgrades, and being able to switch forms to solve a handful of puzzles. It's definitely really fun! Though there were definite noticeable spikes of difficulty, the dungeon exploration never felt too frustrating, and no dungeon feels poorly designed.
But, man, the story suffers so much. Its ending is great, but the journey to get there doesn't really feel deserved. I read from another review that it was an issue of translation, and I hope that's the case. I can see how the story wants to go somewhere, and make you care for the main cast, but at least for me, it just doesn't seem to do that. I also think some of the early bosses were just... not good. The later half were all really good and fun bosses, but the first half just felt terrible. Which, is a bit odd y'know, since you'd expect the first half to be easier then the second half.
Now one last note is that this game has what can only really be called a lives system? It's odd, and I don't think it works all that well, because it doesn't actually feel worthwhile to gain new lives.
This game, even with its strengths, is probably my least favorite of the Quintet Trilogy. Which sucks because I see a whole lot of potential within it. Yet again Illusion of Gaia is far from bad, but I wish I could like it more.

Virgo Versus the Zodiac was a game I played a bit over 2 years ago, and I absolutely fell in love with it. In part, it was definitely due to me discovering the game all on my own. Having that sense of discovery, finding the needle in the haystack, it's a rewarding feeling. But even then, the game is good in its own merit, though I do recognize some flaws the game has. Ive been meaning to replay it for quite some time now, and I finally got the motivation to do so. And I'm really glad I did, I was able to garner new insights that I never noticed before, both in the good and the bad. At the end of the day, I still really love this game, though its flaws are quite apparent.
Virgo Versus the Zodiac is hard to describe without comparing it to its inspirations. And that's mainly because for a game as niche as this, it's best to give a general framework of what the game is like, and I think having that framework here would be helpful. In this regard, Virgo Versus the Zodiac is a game inspired by the Mario & Luigi series, which is mostly seen in the game's combat.
While I compared Virgo Versus the Zodiac's combat to the Mario & Luigi games, it doesn't copy the game's combat system. I would say if anything, the game takes the ideas of the Mario & Luigi battle system, and takes its own direction with it. Much like Mario & Luigi, combat is done in Turn-Based Battles, and you can do action commands in order to improve your attacks, or defend from enemy attacks. Each character as well responds to a specific button, Virgo herself uses the A button, and the additional party members you obtain use B and X. However, where Virgo Versus the Zodiac changes things is how the game deals with countering enemies. In particular, one action you can do is to defend, which increases your Purity meter. This Purity meter acts a a shield, protecting your health from enemy attacks until its depleted. If an enemy attacks a character whose Purity meter isn't empty, and that character successfully defends the attack, the character is able to do a Counter Attack, which is determined by the equipment you choose. This means that it's possible for your characters to have 2, maybe even more actions per round of combat depending on the Purity and who the enemies attack. But another bit of strategy to keep in mind is that the reverse is also true, where enemies are able to counter your attacks if their Purity meter isn't empty either. And this all culminates into a really fun, engaging, but also at times challenging gameplay loop, and I really love it.
I mentioned it prior, but equipment is a major aspect of Virgo Versus the Zodiac's combat as well. In the game, you have 8 equipment slots per character, 4 for main attacks, and 4 for counters. But each of the individual slots can only fit specific types of equipment, and each equipment grants you a specific attack per battle. Some attacks will only target enemies in the front row, some can target any enemy regardless of their position, some hit every enemy, and some are shield to defend yourself with, granting you Purity. There is much more to equipment as well, each increase and decrease certain stats, have additional bonuses, differ in recharge rate, can inflict foes with status effects, and vary in what kind of Action Command you need to do to get the best result. There's so much equipment to find in Virgo Versus the Zodiac, which allows for a high level of customization, which can make each run somewhat unique.
I apologize for comparing the game to the Mario and Luigi series here, but I think it important for this. In the Mario and Luigi games, each enemy has a "tell". Something in their animation in order to know how to react to them, and to counter their attacks. Virgo Versus the Zodiac also has a "tell" for every enemy, but instead of it being for what attack they're using and who its targeting, the "tell" is for what type of attack it is weak to. Particularly, Virgo Versus the Zodiac has a Rock-Paper-Scissors type system for its enemies, and you're able to tell what weakness an enemy has based on what color it is. Red enemies are weak to Green attacks, Green enemies are weak to Purple attacks, and Purple enemies are weak to Red attacks. I can definitely recognize that since I've played and beat this game 9 times now, I have this system ingrained in my head, but I imagine for first time played, it would be hard to memorize it, especially since the names of the types don't imply what their weaknesses are. Where this can be difficult too is that some enemies lean more towards Yellow, and some lean more towards Blue, so it's hard to really tell what their weakness is meant to be.
Though not a part of the combat system, something integral to the game that I heavily suggest investing time into is the game's crafting system. During the intermissions between each main chapter, and sometimes during the main chapters themselves, you're able to access the crafting system. Through the crafting system, you're able to either create new equipment, or upgrading your preexisting equipment. And believe me, upgrade your equipment. While you can find some already upgraded equipment throughout the game, it would be best to upgrade your equipment you're already using. Boss fights can turn from extremely deadly to a lot more manageable just by upgrading your equipment. I can't imagine doing it without upgrading your equipment at all.
At the start of most chapters, you're offered to play a small optional minigame. These are all bullet hells with 2 stages and then a boss, and as you would probably expect, each chapter increases the difficulty of these minigames. The Bullet Hell minigames in Virgo Versus the Zodiac aren't anything too complex. You have 3 normal attacks you can switch from, and 2 special attacks you can do if you have Purity built up (In this mode, Purity is a Special Meter). While I don't find myself to be too skilled at Bullet Hells, I really appreciate these minigames as short little breaks from the main game. And aside from that, you do get some nice rewards that help you upgrade equipment easier.
I don't really want to talk about Virgo Versus the Zodiac's story in much detail. That is mainly because a game as niche as this, I think it best for people to experience the story themselves, with as little knowledge as possible. That in mind though, i can definitely say the story may not be for everyone, though it is for me. It's very ambitious and I really commend the game for trying to have an ambitious story for what the game is. I don't think that it succeeds all the way, but for what the game is, the story is pretty good! The characters as well are charming in their own right, and really silly (I say that in a positive manner). I like how the game features "Zodiac Memories" as a way to see character interactions between character who would otherwise not interact outside of the main story.
Virgo Versus the Zodiac has 3 major endings, and how the endings play out is dependent on actions that you do during the first half of the game. I won't talk about what happens during the endings, but I think it's important to keep it in mind as I bring up my next point. Aside from those endings and one part in Chapter 5, the actual story of the game barely changes. And I think that in part is probably my biggest issue with Virgo Versus the Zodiac. Until the ending of the game, it feels like the choices barely mattered, and even then, going for all of the endings is really repetitive. Chapter 5 is not only one of the longest chapters, but also having to do it all 3 times with very little difference is a bit annoying to me. There's definitely an argument to make that I didn't need to go for all 3 endings, however a single play-through of the game took me about 7 hours, so I thought it reasonable that I should try for every ending. And hey, I've beaten this game 9 times now.
What was somewhat new for me was the recent addition of the playable Zodiac Memories, which was added about a month ago. I say somewhat new because I had actually played these before they came out, I helped QA test it! Yet again, it's really nice to see characters interact who, in the main story, would be unable to otherwise. I like how each of the playable Zodiac Memories have unique aspects to them, though I swear I really hated part of Libra's Zodiac Memory in particular. Then again, I'm not good at Chess. And I really appreciate how it shows areas that while we knew exist, were unable to visit during the main story of the game. Most Playable Zodiac Memories were probably 10-ish minutes in length, but they're quite nice for what they are. I do kinda wish they were a tad bit longer though.
Virgo Versus the Zodiac is still a game I absolutely love. It's not a game for everyone, and I can definitely see why someone would not like this game. Though it has some noticeable flaws, I still ended my time loving the game. I haven't even mentioned the amazing soundtrack, or the great sprite art the game features either. I can't help but suggest Virgo Versus the Zodiac to anyone who is reading this. At base price, the game's only 20 bucks which is a pretty good deal, and like. I need people to talk to about this game, no one I know has played it yet.

Earthbound, once a cult classic, now probably one of the most influential RPGs to ever exist. This isn’t my first time playing it, I played it on my 3DS back in 2017 I believe, but I don’t remember much of my original experience with the game. Since I played Mother 3 last year, and I played the original Mother a couple months ago, I thought it was fitting to replay Earthbound. Earthbound is a complicated game I feel. Is it an amazing game that deserves the status it has today? Of course! But at the same time, there were certain aspects of the game that I just never liked. Even with those aspects in mind though, Earthbound is still a spectacular game that is worth anyone’s time.
Earthbound’s combat is really something to me. I saw some reviews call it simple or basic, but I don’t really see it that way. Particularly, I really love the rolling HP system. Instead of HP immediately dropping from say, 200 to 150, it slowly rolls down from 200, to 199, 198, 197, etc, etc, all the way down to 150. What that means is that on the next round of combat, if you’re fast enough, you can heal that health before it gets to 150. This also works if a character takes enough damage to go down to 0, if you heal them before it reaches 0, they don’t die. This system is so unique, I’ve only ever seen it in Earthbound and Mother 3, and it’s still one that amazes me. There’s a unique sense of saving a character before they die, instead of just reviving them. The PSI abilities in combat are also great, though I primarily just used the healing and offense ones. I like the differences in how fire, ice, and thunder skills work, alongside the unique skills of Rockin’ and Star Storm. I probably should’ve used the support PSI abilities more often, as they would’ve given an edge in combat, though balancing PSI I always found a bit tough, so I often saved it for when it was most useful.
Another outstanding aspect of Earthbound is the general environment. I love how absolutely colorful it is, alongside each area having its own unique vibes. Either from a color palette, or what you actually see as you explore towns, dungeons, or just other locations, you can get the sort of vibe of that location. And I love the settings that the Mother games take place in. Mundane suburban environments, mixed in with some weird and fantastical elements, it’s all super fun and charming. While they had some of the frustrations I’ll explain later, Zombie-Infested Threed and Moonside were some of my favorite locations in the game visually. And adding even more to that, the music really adds to the entire environment too. Typing this right now, I have the store theme playing in my head, and though it appears throughout the entire trilogy, Snowman is still one of my favorite songs in the entire series. There’s something about the song that points to the beauty and the loneliness in a place such as Winters.
Earthbound itself doesn’t have an outright spoken story. It has moments that are, especially in the beginning and endings of the game, but most of the story of the game is written by you. The paths you take, the battles you fight, the hardships and the victories. The journey is yours to take, your path to walk on, your story to write. And I find beauty in that. Earthbound, though having an overarching plot, feels more focused on the journey which I think is another thing to point. Sure, Giygas exists and is threatening to destroy the world, but it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey to get there. You get to see so much of the individuals that make up the world, their daily lives, their struggles, and the general mundane and weird aspects of life. Dungeon Man is one of my favorite characters, especially in this aspect. This guy just wants to become a dungeon, and he’s able to, and there’s something really fun about that. And I think the hardships in the game are another point to the game’s strength (at times, yet again I’ll explain later). The game has noticeable jumps in difficulty, but honestly I find some charm in them. Having to struggle against difficult enemies, but never giving up. Trying again and again until you eventually succeed. And it gets to a point where the things that beat you are now just a pushover. There’s something to that that I really appreciate.
Now, I want to elaborate on what I foreshadowed multiple times already, those being the frustrations I had with Earthbound while playing it. To me, Earthbound is a near perfect game. It does so much right, and so much perfectly, but the things that I found frustrating were really frustrating. I think particularly the thing that frustrated me the most while playing the game was constant status effects that were happening. Now this is obvious exaggeration, but it felt as if every other turn one of my party members was afflicted with a status of some kind. I don’t know if I missed important information that would help me counter status effects, but unless I had the right level of PSI Healing, there wasn’t really a way for me to counter it. And most of the status effects in the game are just really annoying. Crying and Feeling Strange were the most common ones, where accuracy is lowered and attacking wrong targets respectively. Those are fine, but can be a little annoying, especially the latter. I found the most frustrating one to be Possession, as not only can it hurt your party members, but it can prevent a party member from acting one turn. And in cases where it prevents your healer from healing, you’re just screwed for that turn. I think ultimately the thing is that the status effects themselves are fine in isolation, one of the final bosses, Diamond Dog, had a really nasty status effect which works as basically an instant kill, but what made it work was the environment in which it was found. With random encounter enemies constantly using status effects on you, it becomes a lot more frustrating, and at least for me, not in a good way. This leads into my second general frustration, which is the nature of enemy encounters. I think Earthbound improved upon Mother’s method of enemy encounters. Gone are random encounters, but now enemies appear in the overworld, and if you collide with an enemy, combat begins. I found myself unlucky, and constantly found swarms of enemies, and since enemies are faster than the player characters, you can’t escape from them easily once they see you. I ultimately think either lessen the amount of enemies that can spawn, or make it easier to flee from them before battle, and the problem is solved. My last frustration is one that isn’t exclusive to Earthbound, as it’s a pet peeve that I find persists through nearly every RPG I’ve played. Being unable to flee from combat I just find bad, innately. I make this point every time, but there’s already a built in punishment to fleeing battles, since you won’t get any items or experience points. Punishing the player by allowing the enemies free attacks on them is just insult to injury at that point.
I want to make a point with my frustrations though. With what you can probably imagine, they’re all chance based occurrences. Status Conditions, Encounter Rates, Flee Rates, all of these are things that are all tied to chance. While these are frustrations I had, and I can’t discount them, I also imagine I just ended up being really unlucky during my time playing it. It was to the point that I was worried I was playing a pirated version of the game somehow, though that wasn’t the case. I can’t guarantee anyone who plays this game will run into the same issues I did, and hey, maybe you’ll be able to overlook what I couldn’t.
At the end of the day, even with the frustrations I had, I still love and appreciate Earthbound. Its charm, music, environment, everything about it aside from a small list of things is absolutely amazing. It’s no wonder that so many games get this inspiration from the Mother series, let alone Earthbound. The ending of the game is absolutely beautiful, and I’m glad I stuck through it to the end. Though of course this isn’t my first time playing Earthbound, I’m glad I revisited it after so long.

This really was a long time coming.
I got a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 all the way back in early December of 2022. And at the time, I absolutely was loving it, but I got distracted by Pokemon, and I forgot to continue it. Now, a whole 8 months later, I’ve played all of Xenosaga, replayed Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and played through all of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And finally, I made it back, all the way to Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And now, sitting here, having beaten it all, believe me when I say that this game is an absolute masterpiece.
Now, when it comes to the Xenoblade Series from what I’ve played so far, they always nail the general combat loop, and this game is no exception. Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s particular combat loop feels like a mesh of Xenoblade 1 and 2’s, creating something similar, but adding things to make it entirely unique. In particular, depending on the class a character has, their primary arts either recharge after time, like in Xenoblade Chronicles 1, or after Auto-Attacking a certain number of times, like in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And on top of that, you can eventually fuse these arts together, strengthening them, and combining their affects together. This doesn’t even take into account the Talent Arts, which charge up depending on the class of your character, and the actions you do in combat. This all combined with the fact that there’s up to 7 characters in combat all at the same time provides for such an engaging loop of combat, especially as you can chain certain arts together to go from Break all the way to Smash.
And genuinely, of the games so far, I think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has the best version of Chain Attacks from what I’ve seen so far. In fact, I used them so often because I found them that good. Particularly, you can use arts of specific characters in order to build a meter up to 100%, with each class type having unique effects to the chain. And easily my favorite aspect of the Chain Attack is Overkill, allowing you to increase the XP yield from battles. Late in the game, I was able to easily get over 500% increase of XP from Unique Bosses. I also just enjoy being able to think of what arts are the best to use in the situation, and how to better the chain as best as possible.
Even now I’m still not done with the combat of the game. The last thing to be mentioned is one of the biggest parts of Xenoblade 3, that being Interlinking. Interlinking grants temporary transformations that occur during battle, and require two specific party members for, and god, they’re just so cool. They have unique arts and skill trees that allow for further upgrade, and especially against later bosses, they become even so, so useful. You can also somewhat power up your Interlinks while in combat through the use of Fusion Arts. Particular from what I noticed, the higher level you get, the more time you have to be Interlinked. In addition to this, if you reach the max Interlink level, Interlink, and then start up a chain attack, you can start up a special chain attack instead.
There’s so much I could really mention about Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story, but trust me here, the story is easily one of the best in the entire series from what I’ve played so far. Especially coming from the complicated mess that was Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story is of such high quality, it’s crazy. The entire main cast, including the heroes and the villains is easily one of, if not the best cast of a Xenoblade game. And it makes it interesting to me how the entire main group of protagonists are all met in the game’s first chapter. You’d think that this would overwhelm, but it’s balanced in a way that it never does, which I find really impressive. And god, I absolutely love the themes found within Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but because of that, I’m going to stop speaking of the story now. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is one of those games where the story is super important, and with how amazing it is, I want to keep things as little known as possible. I don’t want to spoil any of it, and I really think it’s important to worth playing.
Speaking of characters though, while you can only play as the main 6 cast of characters, you have a lot of options for who can be in that 7th slot. In particular, there’s 19 heroes that can take up that slot, each having unique skill sets and arts, and if you battle with them enough, you can give those abilities to the main 6 as well. Some Heroes are unlocked through the main story, but a majority are found through optional Hero quests, and I found them extremely worthwhile to do. Not only is it just more content and more story for the game, but it’s great to give new insights of the world of Aionios through the lens of numerous additional characters. Especially as there’s additional quests and ways to strengthen Heroes, you’re able to learn even more about specific characters in the game. I tried to do every Ascension Quest that I came across in order to do that, however after I did one that was extremely tedious, I decided against it.
And as I mentioned prior with the Hero Quests, they provide a lot of additional content to this game, however, believe me, even without those, this game is absolutely huge. Numerous side quests, treasure to find, overworld bosses to fight, it’s just absolutely absurd how much this game includes. How Long To Beat measures Xenoblade Chronicles 3 at an average of 62 hours in order to beat the main story. But, if you’re anything like me, that’s just not going to be true. For me in particular, it took me a little over 77 hours total, and even then, it could’ve taken so much longer.
One of the big reasons to why this game is as massive as it was for me was just how big the actual world is. That’s not me saying it takes a long time to get from point A to point B, instead, there’s just so many optional areas that you never actually need to go to. And as I’m someone who loves to explore, of course that means I explored every optional area I could find. I remember particularly around the start of chapter 3, while the game directed me to go a specific way, there was an alternate path that took me to a massive desert, with so many things to find in it. And aside from optional side quests, and a DLC Hero Quest, it’s never mandatory to ever step foot in this desert. And the fact that the game is just able to do this blows me away, I absolutely love it. And even now due to not being strong enough to go to specific areas, there’s still locations in the map that I haven’t seen yet. The fact that there’s just that much to see is super impressive.
And one thing I want to really commend the game is how much better it is to navigate the world of Aionios. I still think how hard it was to traverse the world of Alrest back in Xenoblade 2. While the environments were really pretty, actually getting from point A to point B was an absolute pain in the neck, and it was super frustrating because of it. However Xenoblade 3 fixes that issue, while still keeping the game absolutely gorgeous. Though I definitely think the better navigation marker improved things noticeably. And the Party Skills you obtain by obtaining specific heroes in the game is just what the Field Skills in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 should’ve been.
And throughout the 77 hours I played of the main campaign for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I didn’t have to grind a single time. That in itself is already impressive, and that’s primarily due to Bonus Experience. Bonus Experience was first introduced back in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, however got a lot better in the following game. Much like the previous game, completing quests, and finding new locations, landmarks, and secret locations all provide characters with Bonus Experience that they can use when resting at a Campsite. However with doing as much as I did, I found myself with an outrageous amount of Bonus Experience at all times. If I remember correctly, by the time I beat the game, I was level 88, which I was able to attain primarily through bonus experience. And while I am glad I never needed to grind during my time with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I also think the Bonus Experience ended up making me too powerful at the same time. I can’t really think of a proper solution to this, but it’s something I wanted to acknowledge.
And now, I want to get into the game’s DLC campaign, Future Redeemed, and just what an absolute wonder it is.
Much like the Torna DLC of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Future Redeemed alters the base of the main game’s combat mechanics, but alters them in a way that makes them really interesting. There’s no Interlinking in Future Redeemed, instead, they’re replaced with Fusion Attacks, which are special art attacks that are powerful ways to end combos. But instead of how Interlinking is specific combos, you can actually decide what your unity attacks are, which I find really cool.
And it’s crazy to me just how generally massive Future Redeemed is, especially in comparison the Torna Expansion of Xenoblade 2. There’s 4 large areas found in Future Redeemed, and the game actively pushes you to explore as much of it as possible. Whenever you look at the map, you can see a checklist of everything you can find and discover throughout each area. And of course, the game rewards you for exploring through Affinity Points.
I wouldn’t exactly call them Skill Trees, however each character has an amount of skills that can learn or gain through spending Affinity Points. You can start by learning 10 skills on each character, but if you get some Affinity Unlock Kits, you can increase that amount to 40. These Skills can teach characters new arts, skills, or enhance already obtained arts and skills. I played as A for the entirety of the DLC, and A had a skill or whenever they auto-attacked, they gained health depending on the amount of damage they did. I absolutely love how helpful actively trying to clear out as many skills as possible is.
And much like the story of base Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I don’t want to speak much about Future Redeemed’s story. There’s some absolutely great moments in it that I can’t bring myself to mention, and there’s still some things I don’t fully grasp. But with that in mind, much like with the base Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I absolutely love the main cast in Future Redeemed. And as you can probably infer from my previous paragraph, I found my favorite of the cast to be A. I also really think this game redeemed Rex to me, making him so much more likeable of a character.
And this brings me to the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the most recent Xeno game to release, and easily one of the best I’ve played. And, while I’m not done with the Xeno series yet since I haven’t played Chronicles X or Xenogears, it feels like I’ve finished an era with now having beaten Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And thanks to the DLC campaign, it feels like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a real send-off to the past titles and to the entire Xeno series history, and is ready to move in a new direction. It’s ready to move into the future, whatever that may be. And no matter what the future may be, I will be there along the way. I love Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and I’m so glad I finally got to truly play it.

This game was a genuinely just, great experience. The platforming segments are great, and for the most part are really well designed, though some areas not so much. I love the 2.5D style, and how the levels bend and intersect, it creates quite a unique aesthetic that I love.
The game overall, while challenging at times, very rarely gets annoying or frustrating, which I'm very happy with. And honestly, I'd say a solid 70ish percent of the game I had no difficulty at all. I found some of the late game bosses to be some of my favorite parts of the entire game. I really love the puzzles as well, yet again they're really well designed.
I think the only issue I had, and this isn't even necessarily an issue with the game, is that I had bad depth perception, so sometimes I can't really tell how far away a thing is, if it's not on the same plane as Klonoa. But aside from that, this game was an absolute blast to play, and its ending is definitely worth it.

What hasn't been said about this game? It's easily one of the best titles for the 3DS, and I really hope this game gets ported to the Switch, or whatever the next Nintendo System is.
The character writing is superb, even the minor characters who appear for 1-2 chapters are still really fun. I really love Viridi, Dark Pit, and ESPECIALLY Hades, but that's obviously. Boss fights are absolute fun, stages are all unique, and I love the flying sections so much. The weapons are really fun, and being able to create stronger weapons gives me the urge to play more, and try to get the best weapon possible. I played primarily on low difficulty, but I definitely wanna try on higher ones.
I can't see any sequel being able to live up on this game, this game is one of the few titles I can think of that are perfect through and through.

No words I can write here can do this game justice, but I will at least make an attempt to sing its praises.
In the past couple months, I had played through the two other Xenosaga games, and while they had their flaws, I still really enjoyed them. I was scared to start this game, not only was I afraid this game wouldn't live up to the hype I accidentally built up for it, but I was scared of finishing this series for good. Xenosaga Episode 3 is the culmination of everything that came before it, creating something beautiful.
The gameplay is easily the best in the series. Though I did enjoy Xenosaga 1's gameplay, it at times felt overly complicated, and in turn, I feel like Xenosaga 2 did the opposite, oversimplifying everything. The gameplay of Xenosaga Episode 3 hits a good balance, featuring the customizability of Xenosaga 1, while having a lot of the simplifications of 2. I really liked the break system, and by far this game has the best mech combat of the entire series, hands down. But by far the best change Xenosaga 3 did was the fact that characters in the reserve gain skill points! It actually allows for every character to grow evenly at the same time.
The story, like with any Xenosaga game, is its shining aspect, and yet again Xenosaga 3 goes above and beyond. I did find that there was slight pacing issues, as I found the second act (chapters 4-7) to drag on a bit, but the entirety of Xenosaga 3's disc 2 makes up for it entirely. The fact that I don't want to spoil anything is painful because the story and its themes are AMAZING! The character writing is still on point, and not only does this game's new characters work really well, but it also made me care for characters I didn't really care about prior to this game. The themes are so impactful, especially to me particularly, as some of these themes have really been a part of my life experience. I definitely attached to KOS-MOS the most because of it. Xenosaga Episode 3's story is simply just a masterpiece in storytelling.
I love this game, without any shred of doubt. But. I'm sad to see it go. Sure, I can always replay it whenever I want, but the initial, blind experience can only occur once. But honestly, with a game like this, I think that's the point.

I first played the original No More Heroes back in August of 2022. It was my first ever Suda51 title, and I absolutely loved it. And slowly but surely, I played through every other Suda game in the “Kill The Past” world. The Silver Case, Flower Sun and Rain, The 25th Ward, Killer 7, No More Heroes 1 and 2, and Travis Strikes Again. And that all eventually leads to here, No More Heroes 3. And what a great game to leave it off on.
No More Heroes 3 brings back a lot of what I loved that was sorely missing in No More Heroes 2. Particularly, I’m so glad that they brought back the open world of Santa Destroy, I love just sort of wandering aimlessly, and finding random things as I go. But No More Heroes 3 evolves upon the open world of No More Heroes 1 as well, by bringing new locations for you to explore as well. Ultimately I think my favorite of these new areas was the Call Of Battle, as there’s a TV Filter over it, which I think is a stylistically great choice. I also really like how each area feels generally unique compared to each other, making them all stand out in their own ways.
Now, the Mini-Games (known as Volunteer Missions) in No More Heroes 3 are probably the overall best Mini-Games in the entire series thus far. Though I really enjoy the mundanity of the Part-Time Jobs in No More Heroes 1, I think that quality-wise, No More Heroes 3’s Mini-Games are the best. A lot of them feel like arcade type games, and while that could then be comparable to the Mini-Games in No More Heroes 2, I think ultimately they just control and feel a lot better to actually play. My favorite Volunteer Mission was this one where you had to defend a beach by shooting massive crocodiles down with a cannon. Though I’m definitely biased, as this felt like a very noticeable nod to Godzilla. Though that’s not to mention that I’m so glad they brought back Lawn Mowing, easily one of the best things for any game to have.
There’s also Requests you can find, and do as you explore Santa Destroy, and I really love them. They primarily involve searching around areas of the world in search of specific objects. Kittens, Scorpions, Moai Heads, etc. I can definitely see this being a bit tedious for some. Having to find every little thing would be hard, especially with the size of the world in this game. However I’m someone who loves to wander around and stumble upon things, so I absolutely loved these.
Now actually getting into the combat, I think this may be the most fun combat in any of the No More Heroes games. Travis feels insanely great to control in this game. Instead of having the High and Low attacks, it’s instead replaced with Light and Heavy attacks, and now you have Jumps and Rolls in the arsenal as well. With how the game panned out, Dodging became one of the most vital components in No More Heroes 3. Whenever you Dodge at the perfect time, you get a bit of slowdown where you can pummel an enemy. These openings are extremely helpful against both bosses and a lot of the regular enemies, as they’re the best ways to get a lot of damage in. And what’s great as well is that if you’re targeting an enemy, the game will inform you when you should do that perfect dodge, though of course being good at timing is necessary for that too. I feel like I got it probably a 50/50 time? I was able to perfect dodge quite a bit, but not all the time.
But one of the biggest additions to the Combat are the Death Glove Skills, which generally give you such an advantage in combat. I found myself using Death Kick the most, it was a good way to stun an enemy, while also dealing for good combo enders and just damage in general. Though, the others have their uses too, especially for crowd control. Death Rain deals damage to enemies in a specific range, while Death Slow slows enemies in a specific range. I found those most useful for non-bosses, as it’s better when there’s multiple enemies, and not just one. The one I probably used the least though was Death Force, it’s a skill where you grab an enemy and throw it, but I found it somewhat situational.
This is not to mention there’s also an additional mode of play as well, where Travis gains a mech suit, and is able to do combat while inside of it. Primarily its used in battles exclusive to it, but each one is super fun to play. You aim at specific target points of an enemy, and shoot a swarm of missiles at it, or you can charge up a giant laser, and aim at the target yourself. While the actual gameplay of it is quite simple, I absolutely love the presentation of it.
I think something that makes No More Heroes 3 quite easy in comparison to the previous titles is that the game gives you healing items. I played on Bitter, which is the Normal difficulty, and the game allowed you to carry 5 healing items at a time. And while the game is still challenging regardless, the fact you can heal up to 5 times is something.
Now, the structure of the gameplay is similar in some regards, but noticeably different in others. One big thing is that they brought back the Entry Fees for each Ranking Fight, which is something I’m just super glad about. It felt so wrong for them to be gone in No More Heroes 2, especially as it’s a major aspect of the UAA framework as a whole. So for them to be back in No More Heroes 3, it was just overall a great thing. But another prerequisite to the Ranking Matches now is Designated Battles. These are challenge fights in the game that set you against a group of enemies, and you have to beat Designated Battles in relation to the color crystal you need, either Red, or Blue. Throughout the game, the difficulty of the Designated Battles definitely fluctuated for me. I didn’t go for every single one, but I did almost all of them. But with how they’re structured, I really like them. They’re not just swarms of easy to kill enemies, but each enemy feels like a Mini-Boss of sorts, and one that you have to play around. Even though I definitely struggled with some enemies, I find them to be really well designed.
And while the enemies are well designed, the bosses are even more so. I feel like the bosses you fight are an important part of games like No More Heroes, and No More Heroes 3 does not disappoint. I love the overall alien theming to all of them, and the otherworldly stuff they can do is really fun. Each Ranking Match in No More Heroes 3 is just the boss fight, unlike the previous two games, which honestly is a change I kind of like. The Designated Battles take the place of the Pre-Boss Fight segments of Ranking Matches, and with how they’re designed, I find them to be a lot better. The bosses as well are really fun to fight against. Interestingly enough, the last time I died to a boss in the game was during the Rank 6 fight, and I beat every following boss on my first try. That’s not to say those bosses are easier, I just think overtime I improved to the point where I didn’t struggle too much with the bosses. I honestly don’t think I have a favorite boss, I like too many to pick just one.
In a lot of my reviews, I often mention how I can’t speak of a game’s story due to wanting to keep the story unspoiled for whoever ends up reading this. And this is true for No More Heroes 3, this game, alongside its predecessor, Travis Strikes Again, feels like the culmination of so many games, that spoiling this game can in turn spoil many others. However what I will say is that I love the new cast of characters introduced in this game, Fu as a central villain especially is a really interesting character, and I love seeing his interactions with others. And of course, Travis Touchdown remains an impeccable character even still. It’s interesting I play this game after Xenoblade Chronicles 3, as No More Heroes 3 also feels like the closing of one book, but the opening of another. It’s paradoxical in a way, it’s both a conclusion and not at the same time, which I find quite nice.
But this leads me into the unfortunates in No More Heroes 3. No More Heroes 3 had a lot of issues due to Marvelous, and a lot of stuff was cut due to it. Large portions of the map are completely inaccessible, at least an hour of cutscenes were removed, and even planned story content was cut as well. And while the end product that is No More Heroes 3 is still an absolutely amazing title, it is just generally unfortunate knowing how much was cut. And in a similar vein, when it comes to my relation with the No More Heroes titles, No More Heroes 3 was the first time I played on the Normal mode, and not Easy. In the previous titles, Easy mode still had some challenge to it, but No More Heroes 3’s Easy Mode gives you invincibility, which has always been a pet peeve for me. I’m typically someone who plays the Easy difficulty in games, but I don’t want Easy Mode to have zero challenge at all.
But now here I am, having finished an eight game long journey, spanning visual novels, hack and slashes, and a first person shooter. No More Heroes 3, due to not being just a conclusion, is an interesting game for things to end on, as things don’t feel over. But as a game that seemingly celebrates everything that came before it, it feels fitting in a way. No More Heroes 3 is probably my favorite of the No More Heroes titles too, especially cause of the gameplay. But regardless, I do think the journey was well worth it, and No More Heroes 3 is absolutely a great game.

Having now just beat the game, my only thoughts can be surmised as a resounding "eh". I wouldn't say that Resident Evil 5 is a bad game, it's far from the worst experience I've had in a game. But let me be clear, at the end of the day, this game is just okay at best.
I think I can describe the gameplay in just a single sentence. It's just worse RE4. It basically repeat a lot of RE4, and changes some stuff to be worse, and for me, primarily the inventory system. RE4 introduced one of the best inventory systems in any game I played, and removing it in RE5 just felt wrong. As well, the boss fights were a mixed bag, either being pretty decent, to just somewhat annoying. I particularly hated the boss fight in 5-2.
And of course, the most notable thing about RE5 is the Co-Op. And I gotta say, for the portions of the game I was able to play in Co-Op was really fun! I played with some random individual, and it was a genuinely fun experience. We figured out ways of communicating, and were able to stay on the same page even though we couldn't talk to each other directly. It was easily the highlight of my time with the game. However, with that in mind, I can't recommend playing this game alone. The partner AI can be a little weird at times, especially when you're trying to manage inventory. The game is so much better with someone else playing with you.
Resident Evil 5 has one glaring issue with it though that just keeps it from being as good as other Resident Evil titles. There's a lack of overall substance that keeps this game from really being interesting to me. Barely anything really felt remarkable to me, and a lot really blurred together. Which makes it worse when the second half of the game (Specifically 4-1 to 5-3) dragged on for a while. And the game doesn't really have much of a style to substitute for its lack of substance. So aside from a few moments, this game just felt wholly unremarkable.
I don't hate Resident Evil 5, and I don't love it either. I had some fun, but ultimately this game just felt like one of the most average games I've ever played. I'm just glad I was able to punch that boulder.

This was another game I really wanted to play as a kid, and now I've finally gotten around to it. And I gotta say, what a wonderful game.
It's got a great art style and it feels unique in the pantheon of kirby games. The levels are fun, and I like all the copy abilities they have in this one, though at the same time it's surprised which ones that I thought were classic were nowhere to be seen. I really enjoyed the animal companions, though I prefer some over others. And while I enjoyed most of the puzzles to get the hearts, some felt more tedious, and the mini-games were sometimes more annoying than they should've. That aside though, the bosses were really fun, especially the final boss. I really need to play more Kirby games, I've enjoyed the all so far.

Pokemon Y is an odd game. Of the mainline Pokemon games, it was the first to be in 3D, and because of that, it has some issues. It's far from the best Pokemon game, but I think it's still a pretty fun one.
For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to talk about Pokemon X and Y here, since both games are about the same. And Pokemon X and Y have a lot of firsts to their name, the first 3D mainline pokemon, mega evolution, the fairy type, mega evolutions, etc. I think it's probably best to start with them.
The fairy type is one of the most notable things introduced in Pokemon X and Y, for reference, the last time a new type was introduced was back in the Generation 2 games. And genuinely, I can't imagine Pokemon without the fairy typing now, it creates a great balancing change, making dragon, dark, and fighting types a bit weaker, while giving more spotlight to steel and poison types. It's also crazy how many pokemon actually changed their typing to either have the fairy type added, or just becoming a fairy type exclusively. It's really cool!
Next, when it comes to the transition to 3D models, it's so-so, I would say. Not the fault of the game of course, but I find it unfortunate that these were the 3D models going forward. For the new pokemon introduced in the game, I do think the 3D models were really good! But some Pokemon I don't think got the same treatment, and a lot of shiny pokemon lost their luster. My first immediate thought of this is a Pokemon like Lanturn. But when it comes to the environment and player characters, I find them really charming!
Trainer Customization is introduced in this game, and while I really love it, it's also quite limited. See, the outfits in the game that you can buy rotate each day, which I personally don't like. It basically means you have to hope that you get the outfit you want on a specific day, and if not, who knows when next it'll appear. The hair customization as well has some weird limitations. If you don't know what the hair styles or colors look like, you have to take a leap of faith to find the one that you prefer the most, as there's no way to see what it is before you pay for it. Alongside that, the hair colors you get only go to natural shades, and while that's fine, since later games allow for a larger variety of hair color, this feels noticeably limited in comparison.
Now, I think Mega Evolution is cool! Giving new upgrades to older pokemon in the form of kinda evolutions that occur only in battle is really neat! It also gave a lot of weaker Pokemon ways to actually be strong, pokemon like Kangaskhan, Mawile, or Absol for examples. However, in the main campaign of X and Y, there's a noticeable lack of mega evolutions. Not only did 3 trainers in the entire main story have a mega evolved Pokemon, you can only find a small handful of the mega stones until postgame. And even with all of that, how I typically play Pokemon meant that I wouldn't encounter any opportunity to use a Mega Evolution in my main team. For reference, whenever I play a Pokemon game, I like to use Pokemon introduced in that game's respective region, X and Y, I would only use Gen 6 Pokemon. The issues comes with the fact that no Gen 6 Pokemon get mega evolutions during the entirety of X and Y, and only did one Gen 6 Pokemon ever get a mega evolution, and that was the event Pokemon Diancie. While this ultimately doesn't lower the quality of the game all that much, I think it was a baffling choice that I want to mention here.
Now, getting into the main campaign of X and Y, there's one change that I've yet to mention solely as it's really relevant to the general campaign as a whole. And the reason is because it makes X and Y's campaign just too easy. Now, you might be thinking this change might be how the Experience Share works, as instead of giving additional XP to one pokemon, it gives to everyone Pokemon. And, you'd be technically correct, that is part of why X and Y are so easy, but I don't think that's the big issue. What change I think made X and Y as easy as they were is how they changed the XP formula. In the previous games, specifically Black and White, alongside Black 2 and White 2, Experience took into account the level of your pokemon, and the pokemon you're fighting. What that means is that the higher level the pokemon you're fighting is compared to your pokemon, the more XP you would get, and the inverse is also true. The higher level your pokemon is, compared to the one you're fighting, the less experience you get. And this was an amazing design choice, as it allowed you to stay relatively on par with the pokemon you were fighting, while ensuring you were never overleveled. In X and Y, they do not use this Experience Formula, instead, each pokemon gives a specific amount of experience, regardless of the level range. So that, coinciding with how the Exp Share works now makes the game so much easier, thusly, so much faster to beat. And for reference, while most Pokemon games take me about 30-40 hours to beat usually, this replay of Pokemon Y took me under 20 hours to beat in full.
And while a typical Pokemon campaign at least fun, I wish I could say the same about X and Y's story. To me, most of it just feels underwhelming, and at times just forgettable. There is some cool stuff that happens, sure, but I'm gonna be honest, I don't really have a strong opinion on it overall. At best, the villainous team is mildly interesting, but you can never take them seriously because they're designs are kinda bad, though I do like the visors (I would say the visors are the one good part of their designs, in the case of the admins). And I made an odd realization during my replay of Pokemon Y, in that, I think the story was altered, and Team Flare specifically was just spliced into it, which could explain why they're just... like that. Especially because the game's ending scene in isolation is so powerful, but the game never feels like it justifies having it, like it just comes out of nowhere.
And while in this particular replay, I never did the postgame, I always felt like X and Y's postgame is rather lacking. Particularly, the most the game gives you is one town, and a short 2 hour mini-campaign. And while that's fine, it's such a minuscule postgame in comparison to postgames we see back in the generation 4 and 5 games. It's just kinda sad to me.
But, ultimately Pokemon X and Y aren't bad games, they're just okay. I still had fun with them, and I really enjoyed my replay through Pokemon Y, but at the end of the day, this game could've been a lot more. And I just find that unfortunate.

I think this may be my favorite Zelda game.
I wouldn't consider this my first attempt at playing Twilight Princess. When I was a kid, my stepdad had a copy of the game for the Wii, and while I did make it past the first dungeon, I never picked it back up afterwards. Finally, probably over a decade later I returned to Twilight Princess to finally give it its due. And god, I loved it.
Zelda dungeons have always been some of my favorite things to come across, and Twilight Princess genuinely has some of the best. The puzzles are great as always, I loved stuff like the magnetism in the Goron Mine, or the Statue Puzzles in Temple of Time. They feel so well designed, and I loved trying to clear out every single dungeon I came across. I think if anything, I didn't particularly was one segment in Palace of Twilight. I found the Zant's Hand to be too punishing, but that's how I view it.
And the bosses were so fun. When it comes to most bosses, they're pretty easy to understand, and I wouldn't say any were difficult at all. I never died to any of the bosses. However, while understanding a boss is one thing, the execution of fighting it is another, and I love it here. There's oftentimes a sense of spectacle that I love here, especially for some of the later bosses too. I think the only boss I had any issue with was Morpheel, but that's mainly because I could never understand the swimming controls all that well.
The general combat is really fun too. I will say at first, the general combat is your basic fair. It's what you would typically expect from other Zelda games, right? But as you progress further and further, you can obtain new types of attacks that allows Link to fight enemies in more different ways. It really fleshes Link out I'd say, and I really enjoyed it.
And listen, I've praised this game so much, and I have yet to address the elephant in the room here, being Wolf Link. Wolf Link is such a neat idea, being able to transform into a Wolf and have new ways of interacting with the world is so cool. I love how you can say, track specific scents, or sense things that can't normally be seen by the naked eye. Wolf Link is such a fun idea and I think they did it really well.
The story is really interesting. While Zelda has been dark before, no game really comes close to how dark Twilight Princess is. But, at the same time, I would say it's incorrect to describe Twilight Princess as the "dark" Zelda game. While dark stuff does happen, the game always is able to balance things out. But don't get me wrong, this game can be genuinely scary at times, and when it does, oh is it memorable. Those parts are easily some of my favorites for just how bizarre they are, and no other Zelda game has replicated that for me.
I can't say Twilight Princess is for everyone, but it will most likely remain as my favorite Zelda title. There's so much that I absolutely loved, and I'm glad I finally was able to do what child me just forgot to do.

This game is absolutely amazing.
The gameplay is far different than anything from a typical FPS, and I absolutely loved it. Sure, I had to get used to it at first, but the more I understood of how it was meant to be played, the more I loved it. I love going around locations, and solving puzzles. The game is oozing with so much style it's absolutely amazing.
I love the boss fights especially, the fact that they're far from the typical boss fight, but more thematic to the greater whole of Killer7 is amazing, and I wish more games did something of similar effect.
The story as well is one of, if not the best part of the game. It easily has some of the most thought provoking, theme rich, complex stories of any game that I have played, and I love it. Even though I think I have a good understanding of what this game's themes are, the fact that there's still stuff that I'm trying to wrap my head around is magnificent, and its rare for a game to really do that.
This game is without a doubt absolutely amazing. I've been meaning to play more of Suda51's work, as the only other game I've played of his is No More Heroes 1, and this game has motivated me to get to the rest sooner.

God. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is... an odd game. I can't say for certain whether or not I like it, and I don't think any game has made me feel this way. It's a game of very high highs, but excruciatingly low lows. In that regard, I suppose Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a unique game, for better or for worse.
I started up my semi-binge of Xeno series games due to my love of the story of Xenosaga. And, Xenoblade Chronicles 2's story is rough. The first half of the story drags on, and it struggles to find out what kind of story it wants to be. Does it want to be a Romantic Comedy, or does it want to be a Philosophical War story? This constant clash with what the story wants to be is really jarring, especially with how most of the game's comedy falls flat. In particular, it's either just plainly unfunny, or weirdly uncomfortable. And this bring to not care about certain characters, and hate a specific character that the game probably doesn't want me to. But I find this all frustrating knowing how much better the game gets in the last couple chapters. Around the start of Chapter 7, the game really figures out what it wants to be, and it's genuinely amazing. I absolutely love the game's final chapter, it was an amazing ending to a game that doesn't deserve it. But... with how good the game's story gets later on, it makes that first half of the game far worse in comparison. It just makes me ask, "why did I have to spend 25+ hours in order to get here?". I genuinely can't imagine replaying this game because of that, I don't want to play 25 hours of bad story just to get back to the stuff that is good.
And god, this game's tutorial is just way too long. Not only that, but the game has just, too many tutorials. The game interrupted itself to inform you of things that you could probably figure out on your own just by looking through the menus. While some tutorials are definitely helpful, it didn't feel like I was allowed to learn for myself, which is a bit frustrating to me, especially as it stops the whole game in order to tell me whatever it wants me to know at that time. This issue goes into the Torna DLC as well, since they repeat a lot of information you would already know if you played the original game. And there isn't an option to turn these tutorials off.
And a bit of side tangent here, but Rex is... odd. Now, specifically I'm not talking about his personality. In particular, his model just doesn't fit in with the rest of the game. It's as if they took a model from a different game, and put it into this one, and it's odd because it's really only Rex that has this issue. Especially with how Rex looks so different compared to every other character in the game, it just becomes really jarring to me.
And, I'll be honest here, I almost gave up on this game at a specific point. In particular, it was near the end of Chapter 4, and I was fighting that chapter's end boss. When the game was supposed to trigger a cutscene, but it never did. I had to re-do that entire dungeon all over again, and god it really sucked. And I wish I could say that this was the only time the game crashed like this, but it wasn't. I was just lucky that the first crash made me start saving a lot more frequently.
But, what really allowed me to stick through with this game was the actual combat. God, that combat loop was so addictive. Being able to switch between 3 blades while in combat, all with unique artes and elements is super fun. And boss fights especially are amazing, the flow of combat is really addicting.
But that comes with a noticeable drawback. In particular, most of the Blades you can obtain in game require you go through a Gacha System. And, innately, this is already a problem. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a 50 hour Single Player RPG, not a mobile game, why is one of the most important parts of the gameplay tied to a Gacha System? Now, if the Gacha System was just alternate skins, that'd be one thing, sure, but they're not!
Each Blade has 1-3 Field Abilities, and these abilities can do certain things in the overworld. Now, with that in mind, sometimes you'll have to have specific field abilities in order to make progress in the game, and you're never guaranteed to have every field ability you need! That means, in order to progress in the game, sometimes you have to hope the Gacha System gives you the thing you need, which often doesn't happen. This then leads to Field Abilities really just being artificial roadblocks, as a way to make the game that much longer by forcing you to grind the gacha system.
I find it hard to navigate in this game. I absolutely love how the world looks in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it's set-pieces are amazing. But actively trying to figure out where you're supposed to go is dreadful. The destination marker is often difficult to follow, and the actual geometry of the overall world makes it hard to traverse.
And Torna is interesting. Torna changes the gameplay to switching between the Blade and Driver, which yet again is a really fun combat loop! The synergy that can come with the switch attacks makes it even more engaging than before. And the story itself is far smoother than the original game's, though keep in mind it's about a quarter the length. I just personally dont like how the game requires you to do numerous side quests in order to open up the ending. But yet again, the ending of Torna is really good, and I'm glad I was able to see it.
And, I'm sorry for talking as much I have here. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does not deserve the amount of time I've spent typing this review, but I have so much to say about it. I... I don't think I hate it, but it's far from the quality of the previous titles of the Xeno series. While I don't love it, I'm glad I played a game that made me feel this confused about it. It really a unique experience because of that, even if it's not an amazing game, but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 really is... something.