Has the reverse problems of the first game. Gameplay is much improved over xenoblade 1, but a majority of the cast and the story just falls so flat that this only barely squeezes into a 3.5/5. I also just do not care for the gratuitous fanservice (especially of characters that are supposed to be children!!) and just how generally horny this game is. Many of the blades were more often annoying than charming as well, and wow do some of their designs suck (I'm looking at you Dahlia). Combat is solid but still has some jank to it, mainly the many moments of dead time before you get your builds going where you just stand around waiting for an animation to finish.

I've written entire rants about the story and its flaws to my friends (spoiler: it is not that it is slow-paced, I didn't mind that) but to shorten it as much as I can my main issue is how much of the final 10 hours and the climax of the story rely on caring about the villains and caring about pyra/mythra, and I just had neither experience. I think the idea of having 'reluctant' villains (e.g. Malos, who is basically being mind-controlled, and Jin) is interesting, but it makes it so that you spend the last ten-fifteen hours chasing people who you know are probably going to switch sides anyways, or in the case of Malos, are just being mind-controlled by the Praetor because Malos is not allowed to be an individual. It is thematically interesting, but narratively unsatisfying. We needed a more direct, consistent and personal threat akin to Metalface to patch up this hole because now it felt like I played 50+ hours just to see Malos do exactly what the Praetor wanted anyways. Speaking of the praetor, what a wasted character. He is all vague and mysterious the whole game, then shows up for the climax to become a squid monster and then dies. It just was not satisfying. As far as Pyra/Mythra are concerned, the main driving force behind the plot, who cares man. Pyra says basically nothing of note or value for 30+ hours, and by that point its far too late for me to start caring, and Mythra is fun but gets far too less screentime in comparison to Pyra. Mainly it just feels like these characters are here as bait for horny people, and I audibly groaned every time the camera angled itself to get a better look at their chest or butt.

Some stuff I really liked: Nia, Vandham, Morag and Zeke are fantastic, worldbuilding is great and the game looks beautiful, and there's like one major scene with Nia near the end that I adore. Also I like the cutscenes in which Rex uses Vandham's weapons its so baller and it just activates the neurons in my brain.