36 reviews liked by KomaKuga


"I see you smiling there so peacefully
And cheerfully talking at me
These happy days must carry on
So once again, let's go back to the start
This goodbye is not the end
I know until we meet again
Our feelings will remain the same
Together as one, ’til we find ourselves again."
This game just grips you from the start and never let's go at all, there is never a part that drags you and you have to force yourself to keep playing, the pacing is amazing, and the traversal is amazing and very atmospheric as always from Xenoblade games. The music was one of my favorites of all time from every track, just absolute beautiful with the way they use the flute motif. The exploration with the environments and the combat is absolutely perfect with no flaws at all in my opinion. Takahashi masterclass from being able to plan this game and execute it to end this trilogy perfectly. This core cast is one of my favorites and I love how character focused it is throughout the whole game. I love Noah and Mio so much, they have my whole heart and their whole story. The stretch of second half Chapter 5 to Beginning of Chapter 6 is one of the best I've experienced and especially the second half of the game as a whole is one of the best in media.

Still letting it sink in as I'm writing this, this is a very personal and emotional story that deals with a lot mature themes such as how we deal with time and how we ever march towards the end of our fleeting lives slowly, how we make use of this time, dealing with tragedy and how we respond to it after it happens and to not lose ourselves when we are in state of pain. To not be afraid of change and to keep moving forward, don't let the past drag you behind and if you keep failing you just keep on going no matter what, making mistakes is part of being human but staying in one place is not the ideal because we have to keep going forward. Overcoming our own past and the courage to face the future. A very personal story of life. Returning to the title screen after finishing this game was just beautiful. This title screen music of Xenoblade 3 is what represents this story. How life goes on and we go through all ranges of emotions through the events we go through in our life as a journey. How we grow as a person and self discovery, how we grow and overcome events in our life that trouble us and how they shape, and how we enjoy our memories with friends and family with a mix of sad times and happy times. How we have to keep going in life no matter what happens. Those final scenes in the finale chapter really got to me, as this sinks in more and more I get more emotionally and personally attached to this game and those specific moments. Where We Belong is one of the greatest songs ever made especially for one of the final scenes in the game ever.

As a person that has gone through a lot of personal events in my life, I find this story very personal and even as I'm writing this, this game is still sinking in after I have finished it. I'm really glad I was able to get into this franchise.

"Just who decided that this was how it should be?"

“You see? This is our path to the future!"

“This the truth of our world. Memories melt in the morning light, and then a new day begins"

“Roads stretch out before us. So many paths. Which do you choose? That's up to you. Sometimes you might run astray. You’ll stop, maybe cry in frustration. But you know, that's alright. For the roads… they go on without end. So look up, face forward, toward your chosen horizon… And just… walk on.”

Thank You Tetsuya Takahashi for this trilogy.

This review contains spoilers

6 years......6 years it took me to finally gain the confidence to jump back at this game after dropping it. Not too long ago I was talking about how I wish I knew XC2's combat better and a good friend of mine taught me everything about it (you know who you are, thank you sm). After this, I decided to restart my old unfinished save and try again.

And I'm so glad I did.

Playing this game again, meeting all the characters and exploring the worlds felt like meeting with an old friend after parting ways. Not sure exactly why, but I was glad to be giving this game a 2nd chance.

-- Story --
The story in this game is a really sweet coming-of-age story that also has a bit of that "boy meets girl" kind of energy too, obviously related to Rex's growth as a character and his relationship with Pyra/Mythra. It also features many themes of war and loss especially. Throughout the entire game we hear of the many wars that took place in both Alrest and the world from before and I think it builds up to a great climax. I think the characters are extremely loveable for the most part too, some of my favourites being Zeke and Pandoria, who start off as simple comic relief characters but then turn out to actually have a tragic history, overall I just think Zeke especially is the best bro and I think his history with Amalthus was cool too. Nia is also great, I think her personality is super fun and I do like the chemistry between her and Rex. Of course I couldn't forget about her blade form and the really nice development that comes with it, personally I do think of it as a trans allegory too which made me love Nia even more. Rex and Pyra/Mythra were fun protagonists in my opinion, while not my favourite protags, I think their development and relationship was so satisfying to see to the end. Seeing Rex go from a naive, optimistic kid who whined a bit to this mature dude who kept thinking of everyone around him and not just himself was awesome, and that Pneuma-esque design is such a good way to show that too. Seeing Pyra/Mythra coming to terms with their power and fears of destroying another world through Rex was really sweet, and I love the banter between the two especially during the start of the game and when reaching Morytha for the first time. Poppi is an underrated character too, I think she really peaks from the moment she ignites her ether furnace fully, and had some of the more emotional scenes for me in the game, most noticeably when she can't save Pneuma from sacrificing herself, god. Also the scene where Pneuma is awakened is so damn good.

I don't think it's perfect though, the pacing can be a little slow at points, especially during the first few chapters where the game mostly spends it's time getting some of the party members all together. I also think that Mythra's introduction could've been handled slightly better, since I don't think making a tsundere joke was the best desicion to make for a character right after a pretty major character died. I also wish some characters like Mikhail, Patroka and definitely Vandham got more screentime since they felt a little under-developed. Vandham really should've been around more because I thought his character was already really likeable, but I couldn't feel fully emotional for when he died because of the little amount of time spent with him. Either way, RIP to a legend. There's some characters like Tora too which I thought were just okay, I think he's a fine character but is just heavily overshadowed by the others, even his own blade. I don't think it helps that the first thing that happens when he awakens Poppi is the amount of lewd jokes, with all the maid stuff, like its kinda creepy, even worse when it comes to a character like Poppi.

-- Gameplay --
The gameplay in this game is so damn addicting, whether its exploring the gorgeous areas of each titan in Alrest or the super engaging combat that rewards you for making the effort to build up combos until you can unleash a satisfying chain attack. The combat is some of the most engaging I've experienced in a JRPG, with it's structure of building up different attacks of various strength, involving auto attacks > arts > specials > creating orbs > chain attacks > elemental bursts/full bursts. It takes a while to get used to but once you do you'll be pelting your enemies with funny coloured rocks and getting overkill bonuses. The sheer amount of customization is insane in this game too, overwhelming at first but once you know which are most important you feel more in your element. Of course this leads into one of XC2's main attraction, the Blades. Weirdly the only Xeno game that does mechanic from what I've seeen, the Blades in this game have such awesome designs (well..for the most part anyway) and experimenting with the different elements and weapon types keeps the game fresh. Taking the time to just relax and explore the ginormous worlds of Alrest was also a treat, discovering new landmarks, powerful enemies, sidequests and tons of loot made it feel work taking the time to detour from the main story.

But I have to be honest with the gameplay, one major flaw which has made many drop the game most likely. This is the fact that the game is god awful at teaching you 90% of it's gameplay mechanics, many being extremely important to winning numerous fights. There are many small details in the battle UI that you will catch onto, such as the white orbs on your party member's next special indicating what level their special attack is at, or the glowing yellow link between a driver and a blade indicating max affinity, that game barely touches on. I probably would've beat the game much sooner if the game's tutorials took the time to talk more in depth about the mechanics, rather than just a vague explanations. No wonder so many have dropped this game for its combat. As much as I love the exploration, many of my critiques with the game are also related to it. First off I really don't like how underdeveloped and awkward the map/minimap is, sometimes I felt like I was running in circles in some areas to get to a certain point only to find out I had to take a tiny ass tunnel blending in with the rest of the area or some random hidden platforms jutting out from below. It made me glad we have the internet nowadays. Also field skills SUCK. They're okay in concept, a way of encouraging you to keep upgrading your blade's skill tree and some can be really useful like Salvaging Mastery or any of the collection point skills. But man they really love to block paths with high leveled field skill requirements, especially in sidequests and even some parts of the story (looking at you Spirit Crucible Elpys though that area is a wet fart in either way). Again I don't really mind having stuff like that but god damn some of the level requirements are ridiculous, and they force you to grind out trust or hope you summon a Blade with a certain skill/element. That's another thing, summoning Blades works similar to any kind of gacha game like Genshin or HSR, minus the greedy FOMO tactics and all. Not a major issue to me but it does mean you have to grind a lot to get a blade you want (to all the people who grinded for KOSMOS I salute you), thankfully there are may Blades you can obtain through sidequests and some being pretty great like Herald or Poppi QTpi.

-- Music --
Awkward exploration be damned, this game has one of the best JRPG soundtracks I've ever heard in my life. From the welcoming, adventurous theme of Gormott, the beautiful and serene melody of Uraya, the iconic, powerful song of Mor Ardain, the desperate, intense, lonely tune of Tantal.......reminder that this game was only made by 40 of Monolith Soft's team. And hooo boy some of the battle themes in this game are pure adrenaline, my favourite definitely being "Incoming!", never fails to make me pumped to do some blade combos. Honorable mention to the theme of the World Tree, such an epic final dungeon theme.

Honestly I got nothing bad to say about the music really, it's all wonderfully crafted and will definitely be stuck in my head for years to come.

-- Other Thing of Note --
I probably should've put this in the gameplay part but I do need to talk about some of the technical issues of XC2. Namely the resolution and frame rate. I am baffled they never thought of patching either of these, especially the resolution since it seems like it'd be an easy fix if they just spent some time on it. This makes the game look blurry at times, especially on handheld where the game looks like ass at points (not that it didn't stop me from playing handheld of course), and the frame rate is just....blegh...in some parts, mainly during intense cutscenes or when there's a lot of effects in a battle. It's really unfortunate for a game like this, since you need to focus on dishing out strong attacks, and that slowdown can be painful sometimes. Hopefully those rumors of the Switch 2 enhancing Switch 1 games can fix this issue, or maybe they'll do a Switch 2 remaster (would prefer the former by a mile though).

-- Final Thoughts --
Overall, Xenoblade 2 is a wonderful JRPG with a brilliant set of characters, worlds and combat but has some strong flaws in some of these aspects, but not enough to ruin the game for me. I feel so satisfied and grateful I took the time to give the game another chance and finally see it through till the end. Wish I could tell an old friend all about this, since they introduced me to the game all those years ago. Once a plague on my backlog, now one of my favorite JRPGs i'd say.
I'd probably give the game a 8/10, as I do think its flaws make some parts of the game not as enjoyable. However, I'd absolutely recommend giving this game a shot, more so if you love any of the other Xenoblade games.

(P.S. Zeke is the goat)

This is a game with some VERY obvious flaws. Field skills are a pain in the ass, there are many obvious irritations like merc missions and and pouch items, and of course many of the female character designs are hmmmm.

But if I’m being totally honest, none of that matters to me in the moment. Exploring the absolutely gorgeous world of Alrest, fighting Unique Monsters way above my level with the sublime combat system, listening to the heavenly soundtrack and, above all else, experiencing probably my favourite story in gaming and one of my favourites of all time. Every party member - even Tora - is enjoyable and lovable, the villain lineup is superb, the twists are crazy, and the stand out moments (Chapter 7 climax ahem) floor me every time.

I’m still flip flopping between this and XC3, but if I had to choose I would be happy in saying this is my favourite game of all time, and maybe my favourite work of art ever made. Not much has come close to making me feel the way I do about this game.

This game is a masterpiece.

Everything is amazing, the combat is very fun and developed, you unlock skills in combat as the story goes on and those abilities really reflect what the characters have learned narratively, it has really tough fights that I had to repeat many times but they are kinda tricky and doable once you understand them.
The customization is pretty nice, you have normal itemization but you also have affinitties between characters which allows you to choose between skill trees from those characters to share them with the rest, giving you the possibility to try many different viable builds.

Graphically it's outstanding, pushed the Wii to its limits and the Switch remake is truly good, the artistic design is awesome, it's kinda what I wanted for an hypothetical FF XVII haha. The game also has a nice exploration and backgrounds, and the whole idea of the world as we know it, being over massive titans was just mindblowing.

The music is a real banger and absolutely majestic and iconic, this game (and saga) has one of the best current soundtracks in gaming.

Characters are also really interesting and what they teach you is lovely, but especially, the story is absurdly good, it has an amazing pacing, incredible well thought plot, lots of foreshadowing, philosophy, sociology, science and politics, and an incredibly hooking narrative. God, what a story!

Go and play this game, guys!

current obsession
ishmaels sole presence deserves a 5 star

you know your coin rolls will be great whenever u launch the game hearing don quixote shouting LIMBUS COMPANYYYYYYYY

Caught Up

Canto Chapters III & IV were damn amazing and I didn’t feel like they were dragging at all. The combat is fun for me, I love the characters and the plot of the story and the music. I can’t wait for the future chapters because aside from the first and second chapters being slow and being made to be stepping stones for furthering the story and developing the setting, future chapters having quality of III & IV onward will just be super fun. Mili Masterclass as well, I love Between Two Worlds & Fly, My Wings so much.

Probably will update this each time whenever this game gets a chapter update

Ishmael, Kromer, Outis, Faust, Don, Ryoshu, Yi Sang, Sinclair, Dante Enjoyer 🫶

Alright it got good after 100 hours

Heavensward my beloved!!

This is where the story of XIV started getting pretty good.

In this expansion there's a little of everything, social criticism against poberty, racism and religion, intense politics, lots of drama, epic dragon fights and everything you've ever wanted!

It's very Game of Throne-ish!

I’m what they call a professional gaslighter

Despite being my favorite game of all time, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is not a perfect video game. I could spend a long time going over all the game’s glaring flaws and little things that could be improved. Or I could boot up the game and play it for 5 minutes and remember none of that actually matters.

First and foremost, Xenoblade 2 is an absolutely beautiful video game. Every location is absolutely stunning, sporting a distinct visual identity that’s always pleasing to look at. Gormott is a vast, sprawling plain with the endlessly cozy village of Torigoth tucked away in its corner. Uraya’s cool color palette across its vast swampland and beautiful Saffronia trees perfectly complements the comfort of Garfont Village and elegance of Fonsa Myma. Tantal’s harsh, snow-covered wasteland filled with ancient architecture builds a brutal backdrop for a desperate village struggling to survive. On top of that, Monolith took great care to make these places feel real. Every town is fully populated and every inch of wilderness teeming with wildlife.

It’s not just the locations that look good, either; every element of the game, from effects to menus, is perfectly stylized to fit the pseudo-sci-fi/fantasy world. Character design’s great too, with the game boasting a set of distinct cultures across the different titans in styles of dress and some absolute banger designs for the blades done by a variety of artists. Yes, I know it’s tempting to post a picture of Rex on Twitter with no context and say, “look at this idiot” or to post a picture of Pyra with no context and say, “dumb fanservice game”. But that’s ignoring the work that went into making a lot of creative, awesome-looking characters (and the fact you can easily get used to how Rex and Pyra look within an hour of playing the actual game).

Speaking of awesome, creative things, let’s talk about this game’s soundtrack. Every piece is an absolute banger and fits perfectly within its place in the game. The title screen immediately hooks players in, perfectly sets up the game’s sense of quiet contemplation, and later serves as a background piece in some of its most emotional moments. Each level theme perfectly captures the feel of the area it plays in, from the bustling trade hub of Argentum to the vast wonder of Gormott to the serene beauty of Uraya. The standard battle theme is on the same level as most games’ final boss themes, and every other one brilliantly accents its fight: the savagery of “Deathmatch with Torna”, the over-the-top showmanship of “Bringer of Chaos: Ultimate”, and “One who Gets in Our Way” seamlessly transitioning from the terror of getting spotted by Rotbart to the euphoria of felling a fearsome foe. Even the cutscene music is outstanding. “Counterattack” and “Over the Sinful Entreaty” are outstanding background tracks to some of the game’s coolest moments, “Past from Far Distance” is almost as haunting as the scenes it plays over, and songs like “Friendship”, “Walking with You”, and “Tomorrow with You” perfectly encapsulate the tenderness of Xenoblade 2’s best scenes. I can barely listen to the credits theme without tearing up.

On the topic of audio, the game’s English dub is often a point of contention. I get it, especially coming off of Xenoblade 1. Certain deliveries can feel a bit awkward, and you can get the sense that lines were recorded out of context. That said, I don’t think it’s bad, besides a couple things like Rex’s screams and Obrona’s voice. In fact, there are some great deliveries here, with characters like Zeke and Malos having especially entertaining voices behind them. I also love how the characters from different countries, as well as the blades, all have distinct accents. It’s a cool bit of texture that further develops the different cultures of Alrest, plus a lot of them just sound nice (I could listen to Morag and Nia talk all day).

All this style would mean nothing if the game didn’t have substance to back it up, and I am happy to report this game has substance in spades. Those beautiful locations are all fully realized semi-open worlds, with most of their landscapes being traversable. On top of the massive open spaces, every area is intricately designed with tons of memorable locales hidden away for players willing to explore. And these areas aren’t just big; they’re loaded with content. Every inch of every level has something interesting: a sidequest, a treasure trove, a landmark or secret area, a heart-to-heart, a unique monster, or even just a strong enemy. The size of the worlds is also perfectly tuned, making them big enough to feel impressive but small enough to be traversable. And the challenges each area introduces with side content, blade quests, and higher-level enemies means you can keep coming back to these places for the entire game. The towns are equally impressive, with a variety of buildings, shops, NPCs, hidden areas, and tons of dialogue serving up tons of content both from a story and gameplay standpoint.

Also, the Field Skills aren’t that bad. Sure, switching blades around to get the right skills in your party is annoying, but that’s it. It’s an annoyance, and nothing more. Nearly every skill check in the main story (and like, 80% of checks in side quests) can be cleared with guaranteed blades, and the process to unlock individual skills is very quick, requiring a few battles at most. Hell, the only time you need to pull blades for the main story is to clear the spider web in Chapter 7 (and even then, getting 1-2 common fire blades is trivial). It’s a minor bump in the road that doesn’t take away from the fantastic exploration. In fact, the focus on world design and exploration alone makes Xenoblade 2 an incredible video game.

But it’s not content to be incredible. It has to be the best there is, and “the best there is” is the best description I could possibly give for Xenoblade 2’s combat. Yes, it takes a while to get the full extent of it, but once you do, there’s nothing else like it. It takes the rhythm of a turn-based RPG and seamlessly transitions it into real time, making the player keep track of positioning, healing, enemy aggro, and Art usage. And on top of that, it introduces some truly phenomenal mechanics that elevate it above the other games in its series.

On paper, 2’s combat may look like a downgrade from the previous installments: you can’t Auto-Attack while moving, your Arts charge based on Auto-Attacks instead of cooldowns, and you only have 3 Arts per character. But look a little deeper and you’ll see how much it really adds. If you start moving and then stop, it resets the Auto-Attack timer, enabling the very useful and probably unintentional technique of “stutter-stepping”: continually move slightly to repeatedly perform your first Auto-Attack, speeding up combat even in the game’s early stages. Even beyond this, I enjoy the decision-making it presents: Do you stand still to deal more damage and charge your Arts or do you try to pick up items, grab HP Potions, and revive fallen party members? Speaking of Arts, the detail about only having 3 Arts is a straight-up lie. Each character can equip up to 3 Blades, which each have 3 Arts, 4 Specials, and their own unique abilities. This change in format gives the player plenty of freedom in deciding their loadouts, forces them to manage Blade cooldowns on top of other combat mechanics, and lets the game map arts and specials to the 4 main buttons, reducing the amount of necessary menuing in combat.

On the topic of Arts and Specials, I think it’s about time I explain the meat of the combat. As previously stated, using Auto-Attacks lets you use Arts, which lets you use Specials. Using Specials lets you perform Blade Combos, which can set up Orbs that let you perform better Chain Attacks. And if you break enough Orbs in a Chain Attack, you deal insane damage with a Full Burst. This also grants you additional EXP if you kill an enemy, which all but eliminates the need for grinding when used properly. Speaking of Blade Combos, each Blade Combo deals increased damage and damage over time, even at lower levels. Ergo, even if you don’t finish a Combo, you can still deal good damage to the enemy.

Xenoblade 1’s Break/Topple system is also reworked into Driver Combos. In 1, the best strategy for harder fights was to break enemies and then continually topple them until they could no longer move, which could feel a bit stale. In Xenoblade 2, Break and Topple have much more limited durations, but Toppled enemies can be Launched and Launched enemies can be Smashed. Launched enemies take more damage than Toppled enemies, and Smashing an enemy deals massive damage and spawns items. All stages of a Driver Combo also spawn HP Potions, increase the DOT and uptime of Blade Combos, and interrupt enemy Arts. This creates a much more dynamic system where you can constantly perform small actions to gain the advantage over the enemy, but there’s also a degree of risk when your Breaks don’t hit and you have to retry. Performing a Blade Combo while the enemy is inflicted with a Driver Combo also performs a Fusion Combo, dealing even more damage. On top of all that, Blades’ affinity increases over the course of a battle and grants you buffs when it maxes out.

This turns every combat encounter into a satisfying series of loops, where every attack builds into the next. At the start of a fight, you’re at your weakest, only using Auto-Attacks and a few Arts. But as the battles progress, your options open up. You start using Specials and Blade Combos to deal damage. You perform Driver Combos to gain advantages over the enemy and maybe even get a few items. And when your Party Gauge fills up and you’ve applied a few Orbs, you can unleash a Chain Attack and deal massive damage. There are few feelings in gaming as satisfying as performing a Full Burst.

And all throughout, the Cancel Attack system enhances the very experience of fighting. In a similar vein to Mario RPG’s timed hits, Cancel Attacks give you an advantage in combat if you press a button just as an attack connects. Auto-Attacks, Arts, Specials, and even Blade Switches flow seamlessly into each other for extensive chains of high damage and powerful effects. And the sound design just adds on to the satisfaction. Every attack feels crunchy. The feedback for cancelling makes the combos you pull off exponentially smoother. The cinematic angles for Blade Combo Finishers, Level 4 Specials, Fusion Combos, and Chain Attacks help them hit that much harder.

The combat does take a while to get into. You don’t unlock all the mechanics until the end of chapter 3 and it takes a bit longer than that to get all the really cool stuff. Needing to unlock Arts Chaining and 3 Blade slots especially can be a pain in the ass. The tutorials don’t help, either; they’re way too vague for a system this complex and it sucks you can’t re-view them. Also, the game never tells you how good the Art Recharge items are, which makes the early game a lot slower than it needs to be for most players. But if you’re willing to push through those early hours, to really sink your teeth into the battle system and unlock its full potential, there’s nothing else like it. (I recommend this video if you want a good tutorial).

The combat system is fantastic on its own, but it’s backed up by equally amazing character customization. Like I said before, each Driver in the party (with 1 exception) can equip up to 3 Blades at once. Each Blade increases the Driver’s stats, as well as having their own weapon class and element. Element determines what Blade Combos a Blade can perform as well as dealing more damage if an enemy is weak to it. Weapon classes and the Drivers they’re attached to determine which Arts a Blade can use, with 3 out of a potential 4 being usable at any time. The more a driver uses a specific weapon, the more they can upgrade the Arts for that weapon, granting stronger effects and lower recharge times. In addition, each Driver has an Affinity Chart: a skill tree you gain points for as you defeat enemies and complete quests. These grant some pretty useful passive skills, including the aforementioned Arts Chain. All these systems combined with 5 Drivers that can fill a 3-Driver party and the wide variety of Blades already offer a ton of options and a steady sense of progression throughout the game.

But then the Accessories and Pouch Items shoot the scope of customization through the roof. All drivers can equip up to 2 accessories (3 in New Game Plus). These grant passive bonuses ranging from stat increases, to damage increases, to more specific uses like reducing enemy break resistance or preventing enemies from blocking your attacks. One Driver can’t use multiple accessories with the same effect, but otherwise you can do pretty much anything. Each Accessory can completely change how you play the game, assisting in a variety of strategies and synergies. Pure attack, tanking, evasion, crit healing, and even soloing enemies are all possible thanks to this system. Pouch Items are really cool too, essentially being passive buffs you can give to your Drivers for a certain amount of time. Eventually, you can even equip 2 at a time, offering additional customization and power. Like I said before, the Art Recharge ones are the best, but other effects like Special Recharge and Increased Party Gauge can also be useful.

On top of all of that, Blades have their own customization and progression systems. Core Chips grant steady increases to attack power while offering a choice between Block Rate, Critical Rate, and various secondary effects. Aux Cores grant additional effects that help you deal more damage, take less damage, avoid attacks, and do tons of other things. Even more impressively, each Blade has its own Affinity Chart. As you fight and complete side quests with a Blade, you increase their trust with their Driver. In addition to increasing their damage, this unlocks the nodes in their Affinity Charts. Filling in those nodes is a bit more complicated: each one has specific actions tied to them, ranging from using Specials to defeating enemies to completing side quests. I love this; it encourages players to constantly use all the different mechanics and keeps progression from feeling stale, since you’re doing different things to get stronger rather than grinding. The nodes themselves offer a few different things: Red Nodes improve Blades’ Specials, Yellow Nodes improve Passive Skills, and Green Nodes unlock Field Skills.

This gives Blades a ton of utility in different strategies, which is only compounded by the Accessories, Core Chips, and Aux Cores. You could go for pure damage with heavy hitters like Mythra or Herald. You could use tank-class blades like Brighid to evade attacks. You could build entire strategies around blade-specific mechanics, like Dagas’ Kaiser Zone or Adenine’s boost to elemental weakness damage. And this is before you get into Tora and Poppi, who not only can perform Driver Combos by themselves, but have a unique progression system that lets you fully customize the abilities of all 3 Poppi forms. It’s truly incredible.

Now, there is one part of this system that often falls under scrutiny, and I do understand it: The Core Crystal Gacha System. Basically, a good chunk of the game’s Rare Blades are locked behind random drops from specific items. It can be annoying when you want a specific Rare Blade but can’t pull them, or when you do get that Blade on a different Driver than you wanted. That said, I think a lot of the criticism is overblown, and a good chunk of it probably stems from people’s gut reactions to the words “Gacha System”. First off, there are no microtransactions involved. All resources are earned by playing the game normally. In reality, the Core Crystal system barely differs from most RPG drop systems, and people never throw fits on Twitter about those. In fact, the game is actually really generous with Rare Blades: a lot of really good ones can be earned through either the main story or through side content. Plus, Common Blades are better than you might think, offering good stats, good Specials and some really useful Passives like Orb Master. That’s ignoring how generous the base chance is for getting Rare Blades and how easy Legendary Core Crystals are to farm later on. Is it a perfect system? No, it can be a hassle to get the last couple Rare Blades in the endgame, the game’s a bit too stingy with Overdrive Protocols, and there are probably better ways to encourage switching up your team on replay. But it’s not nearly as bad as it’s often made out to be. At worst, it’s a small blot on an astounding canvas.

There’s a lot more to do in Xenoblade 2 than just exploring the world and fighting things. Sure, those are your main means of interaction with the game, but there’s some pretty neat context surrounding them. Xenoblade 2’s sidequests are great, both from a gameplay and story perspective. They grant a variety of tasks, which mainly involve collecting items, fighting enemies, and exploring certain locations. While that might sound a bit repetitive, the way these basic elements are combined keeps the quests from getting boring. In addition, they all have pretty neat stories tied to them, some even extending through multiple sidequests. The quest chain involving the organizations in Mor Ardain is the obvious highlight, but I also love the Nopon History quest chain, the one where you build a school, the quest in Gormott involving the missing soldiers, and anything involving the Garfont Mercs, just to name a few. Even the smaller quests do a great job fleshing out the world and giving character to the various NPCs. You learn a lot about the different nations of Alrest just from seeing how these people interact in their day-to-day lives.

Blade Quests are another great addition. Every optional Rare Blade has their own dedicated side story, complete with fully voiced cutscenes. These help elevate the Blades from just being numbers on a sheet to being fully defined characters, with certain ones like Dagas having really good arcs throughout their quests. And of course, the Xenosaga fan in me will always appreciate KOS-MOS getting story relevance, even if it is self-contained.

Not only are these quests intrinsically engaging, but they offer great rewards. You get additional EXP, money, and SP (for Drivers’ Affinity Charts) for each one you complete. Blade Quests even grant additional abilities for the Rare Blades. This constant stream of rewards creates this really satisfying gameplay loop of completing quests, getting stronger, and taking on tougher quests. If you’re worried about becoming overleveled after doing all the side quests, don’t worry; all EXP gained from quests is completely optional. Don’t get me wrong, there are some stinkers among the quests. Ursula’s Blade Quest and the Nopon Doubloon quest are pretty annoying, and the compass isn’t too helpful for certain navigational challenges. But the batting average is pretty damn high, and the side quests are overall one of my favorite parts of the game.

If that wasn’t enough for you, Xenoblade 2 offers additional side content to keep you busy. Completing side quests and buying items in an area increases that area’s Development, which lowers prices and opens up new items in the stores. Buying all the items in a store even lets you buy the store, which grants a passive buff during overworld gameplay. This a lot to the game mechanically and thematically, since you’re helping people around the world through your actions and have much greater incentive to interact with the different shops. I also really like Salvaging as a way to integrate Rex’s passion into the gameplay and as a means of making money. (Seriously, you can get a ton of money with just a little salvaging. It’s insane.)

The last major mechanic I want to talk about is the Merc Group, which basically lets you send your idle blades on special missions. These are often used for Blade Quests, normal quests, and unlocking more of a store’s inventory. They also grant additional EXP, money, items, and help unlock skills for the blades. I love this feature. It adds to the sense of progression since you’ll probably have a Merc Mission running at all times, and also helps if you want to develop a Blade without using them in combat. It also makes all the blades feel useful, since you’ll often need specific field skills to start a Merc Mission or to have it complete faster. All this great content doesn’t even cover the additional difficulty modes, New Game Plus, or Challenge Mode, all of which add fantastic depth and replayability just by themselves. With all these different mechanics combined, Xenoblade 2 is a masterwork of game design.

But there’s far more to it than that. Many people say an RPG is only as good as its story, and this story is certainly as good as the RPG behind it. The story of finding hope in a dying world is done beautifully, and leads to quite possibly the best final act I’ve ever seen in a video game. It’s exciting, well-paced, and isn’t afraid to go dark places, but still remains a heartwarming and optimistic tale throughout. I won’t go into detail here for the sake of keeping this review spoiler-free and not tripling its length. Instead, I’d like to dispel a popular myth surrounding this game.

Many people have claimed the story is “tropey anime garbage” and that it doesn’t match the serious tone Xenoblade 1 had. Yes, the story has silly moments, but they pretty much vanish halfway into Chapter 4, and they never interrupt the more serious parts. There are only 10, maybe 15 minutes of these scenes over the course of a 100+-hour game. If that’s enough for you to dismiss a game, then I’m sorry, but I think that’s incredibly shallow. Plus, this game can actually be really funny when it wants to. Throwaway lines like Pupunin’s “wife ran out on me”, Heart-to-Hearts like the cooking disaster in Argentum, and pretty much everything involving Zeke von Genbu just make me crack up. Not to mention, Xenoblade 1 has plenty of light-hearted moments: Colonel Vangarre, Riki’s introduction, half of Reyn’s dialogue. Hell, one of the most emotional scenes in the game was turned into a meme by the fandom, which got big enough for Nintendo of America to post about it on Twitter. I think at least a little comedy is fully acceptable.

This fantastic story is backed by an even better cast. Every member of the main party is memorable, well-written and has at least a few great moments throughout the story. Sure, Morag and Brighid are a little underused and Tora has some…questionable moments, but that doesn’t make the overall cast any less lovable. Each of them supports the game’s central themes in some way, on top of having some great interactions both in the main story and outside of it. The villains are just as good, easily being my favorite cast of antagonists in all of Xenoblade. All the major antagonists and even a few of the minor ones have interesting roles to play in the story, complex motivations that intertwine and often clash, and wonderfully interact with both the thematic material and the main characters. Again, I won’t go into spoiler territory, but there is one character I will talk about quite a bit.

Rex is a fantastic main character. Sure, he may look like a dorky kid with a stupid outfit and subpar voice acting, but give him a chance and you’ll know why this kid made himself the Aegis’ Driver. Even in a world brought to the brink of destruction, suffering from the mistakes of its people, he keeps smiling. He helps everyone he can, tries to understand even the worst of humanity, and fights for its best. It’s amazing how profoundly Rex impacts the people and places around him just by being the good person he is. Not just Pyra and Mythra, but the other party members, the villains, and all the people you meet along the way. As amazing a portrayal as Future Redeemed gave Rex, it could only do so thanks to Xenoblade 2’s rock-solid foundation. And all this came from a humble salvager with a big heart.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will always be a special game to me. It came into my life at an important time and helped my broaden my horizons for what games were capable of. But even considering that, I think it’s a masterwork of game design and storytelling, and my appreciation for it only grows with each passing day. I know it’s not for everyone, but please, give this game a chance if you haven’t already. Don’t dismiss it because a YouTube comedy video made it look bad. I’m sure you’ll find something to love.