This game was a rollercoaster of societal acceptance. If you were loved enough as a child to have your parents buy you a membership, man were you COOL. Access to all the in store swag, flexing on the peasants who could only alter their penguin's color and wear the free handouts, unique puffles, turning your igloo in a house from MTV Cribs. BUT if that membership ever expired, you fell off the societal podium into rock bottom. Other members didn't want to be seen with you, friends wouldn't talk to you, your own puffles didn't even love you. Kids who played this were a different breed. Those were the days...

Positives:
Even with all its flaws it was still very fun. The gearing feels great, running group content usually feels great. Leveling feels great.
Negatives:
There are ridiculous mandatory grinds.
Finding a group is annoying af.
Ugly.
No voice acting.
Leveling as anything other than dps is frustrating.
Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do next.
The community is the worst I have ever seen.
No restrictions on loot so you have to count on the players to not be dicks.
Generally unintuitive in all aspects.
The raid system is bullshit.
All group content has been made irrelevant with the expansion so it's dead content you basically can't play.

I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan like most people, but I enjoy space operas and action games. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order actually quite surprised me in some aspects, namely in its design and presentation. It's not a perfect licensed game or anything, but there are some flaws here that can easily be fixed in future entries.

All I knew going into this game was that it was very "Souls-like". For the most part, that design philosophy is definitely present here, but a bit more tame for the better, in my opinion. With its handful of large planets and maps to explore, sometimes having you backtrack after unlocking certain abilities, there's a mix of metroidvania energy blended in as well. It's definitely not challenging like a Souls game, but the core concept of having "meditation" points that refill your health and respawn your enemies is quite refreshing, especially for a game in the Star Wars universe. I especially thought the few dungeons had some creative puzzles to help you grasp your new abilities. And while I didn't do much side exploring, I did also think the side-boss encounters were a nice touch. This is very much a semi-linear experience, giving players the option to collect and explore if they wish to do so, which is great. I do have a few gripes with how certain things are laid out for the player though, mainly personal annoyances.
Firstly, the combat just feels a bit... complex? Maybe I'm just not good at playing on the normal difficulty, but every time I hopped into a session of Fallen Order, I would always have to re-adjust myself to combat, often finding myself taking hits that I shouldn't be taking. Part of me thinks it has to do with the new abilities you are given over the course of the story, but it might also have to do with how certain commands are laid out. (I often found myself performing a force pull rather than a force push. Stuff like that.)
Secondly, speaking of abilities, the consistency of when new abilities and powers are given to you feel quite unbalanced, which is pretty rough for a game that carries those metroidvania aspects. Trying not to spoil as much as possible, but the early game would grant you things like force push/pull and wall-running, then closer to the end of the game, you earn dual-blade combat and... double jumping (which really should've been one of the first abilities given to you). Even towards the last chapter of the game, you basically gain a powerful subcommand for whatever type of lightsaber you're using. Again, probably just my personal tastes, but I was just kinda baffled by how everything was placed.

From a presentation standpoint, I was quite polarized by it all. To start off with the good, there are some incredible setpieces here, from riding inside an AT-AT to fighting an order of Inquisitors. It's fun sequences like this that show the game's overall AAA quality, very akin to the likes of Naughty Dog or Crystal Dynamics. My personal favorite parts were the vision/flashback sequences that occurred throughout the story, which are absolutely incredible showcases of quick room transitions and immersion within Unreal Engine 4. Really cool stuff.
The plot itself was...fine, I guess. It's a typical run-of-the-mill hero's journey taking place shortly after the Jedi purge within the Star Wars universe, so I found certain story choices to be a tad bit predictable or even rushed. I will say, I think the characters were better here than the story itself, especially the crew aboard the Mantis. Each character has their own little backstories and feelings, which make them quite relatable. The story very seemingly leads into a sequel of sorts, as evident by certain characters being recruited during the final chapters (no spoilers), so I'm even more excited to see where they're going to take this cast next. They're quite fun!
Other minor annoyances with presentation include the visuals. Not just referring to the occasional ragdoll twitching or hair physics, but I just think some of the character models look kinda weird upon closer inspection. Mainly has to do with the humanoid characters; Cere and Trilla both have oddly-sculpted faces, and even the Wookiees have fur that looks even worse than the hair on some human characters. Just a minor art direction like these can break immersion during certain points, especially cutscenes.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a good start for a surprisingly-refreshing action game. Seeing as we're probably getting a sequel to this soon, it's going to be great to see how they are going to be able to top this experience. It's all uphill from here.

"Create a world, with no need for gods."

I gave Xenoblade Chronicles a shot. I really did. Having played the first few hours back on the Wii, I was beyond ready to enjoy the rest of this story and world when it dropped on Switch. This was a new kind of JRPG for me, not only because it's a lengthy one (which I often stay away from), but because I got out of it much more different things than I initially expected.

As a Wii game originally, I can tell right off the bat why this game was nothing less than a triumph for the era. The sheer length, abundant production value, beautiful soundtrack (shoutout to Yoko Shimomura), and overall sense of world scale is beyond anything I could ever imagine for a console midway between PS2 and PS3. And with this new Switch release updating all the models and textures, even in the cutscenes, it really makes this THE BEST way to experience this game. All that aside...this game still shows age.

What begins as a fun "auto-combat"-based JRPG with loads of story-heavy side quests turns into a repetitive grind with loads more of the same side quests. It wasn't until around halfway through that I began noticing the nature of which this game entails, like a giant, hollow extravaganza of content. Especially nearing the final chapters of the story, I was struggling to even keep up with the level spike of enemies thrown at me. I was growing exhaustive, which thankfully the game then provided me with a "casual mode" to simply get through the final hours quickly. Maybe my lack of JRPG experience has made me resent this kind of structure, but I've played NES and PS2 games with better level pacing than this. For the combat itself, while its understandable to map commands to the d-pad, I don't think it necessarily translates well to the Switch control layout.

The story is a different topic on its own. Like I said, going into this, I was already prepared for this awesome story about an ongoing war, a mysterious weapon, and its ability to allow its user to peek into the future. As the grind through this lengthy tale consumed me, I began to lose focus on the several characters and lore pieces that were trying be introduced to me. It wasn't until the final 10-15 hours, however, where the plot twisted harshly for the better. I can't spoil much, but this game turns its fantasy narrative into a convoluted, yet remarkable set of revelations that caught me off guard plenty of times. Unfortunately, the final act felt a bit too rushed, which cut the game's story so close from being perfection.
Also, and just as a side note, I didn't mind the overabundance of cutscenes, but I can understand it not being for everyone. (I've played plenty of Kojima and Nomura titles, so I'm used it.)

Xenoblade Chronicles is simply a product of its time, and for that I can praise it thoroughly. But as someone visiting this game for the first time, which was Nintendo's intentions when releasing this remaster for Switch, I can still see through the cracks. If you can get past the filler storytelling (especially with "casual mode", if you don't prefer the grind), there's a story and world here worthy of experiencing. I, myself, couldn't stop smiling after reaching its end.