Real solid, streamlined experience that complements the main game really well and adds all the lore/fanservice that fans were bitching about not being included in 3 even though that's really not the issue I had with that game's story. That fanservice really did work on me though - seeing this cast come together and send off this saga ended up being really rewarding, and I think it was smart of them to choose not to answer some questions.
A few knocks though - Glimmer and Nikol feel underdeveloped which is a real shame because the potential was there for some great moments with them. The game also feels extremely weirdly balanced, presumably because they had to account for the fact that they locked even the most basic functionality of the battle system behind optional items found while exploring, which is great for encouraging said exploration but also means they probably had to account for you rolling up to the final boss with a team of characters that had basically nothing in terms of gems or skills. Also is it just me or is the cutscene direction a pretty big step down from the base game? Slight disappointment there.
One final note: Good god, Monolith, hire some audio staff. Ever since Xenoblade 1 the audio mix, sound effects, default sound levels etc. have been majorly fucked in every single release and even tinkering with the settings on the user's end won't improve things much. Honestly my biggest wish for this company as they head onto the next generation of Nintendo hardware.
A few knocks though - Glimmer and Nikol feel underdeveloped which is a real shame because the potential was there for some great moments with them. The game also feels extremely weirdly balanced, presumably because they had to account for the fact that they locked even the most basic functionality of the battle system behind optional items found while exploring, which is great for encouraging said exploration but also means they probably had to account for you rolling up to the final boss with a team of characters that had basically nothing in terms of gems or skills. Also is it just me or is the cutscene direction a pretty big step down from the base game? Slight disappointment there.
One final note: Good god, Monolith, hire some audio staff. Ever since Xenoblade 1 the audio mix, sound effects, default sound levels etc. have been majorly fucked in every single release and even tinkering with the settings on the user's end won't improve things much. Honestly my biggest wish for this company as they head onto the next generation of Nintendo hardware.