The story may be a bit of a whatever excuse plot (fog king? more like fog "doesn't connect the future" king), Kino and Nene are just Reyn and Sharla reskins, but hey, we get to see more of Shulk and Melia, a peek at a post-XC1 final boss world, and we finally get to explore the cut content of Bionis Shoulder that has actually been refurbished since its unused debut, and it's more of the same Xenoblade 1 combat we all know and love, so that's awesome

WE MEASURE FIND TREASURE PONSPECTORS TIL WE DIE

The combat and enemies and openworld are on the basic side, but Travis himself, and the game's immense charm and style, addicting gameplay loop, witty writing, damn solid music and unique and fun boss fights (except Speed Buster lmao) outweigh the previously mentioned negatives by tenfold.

So in short; It's Suda51, what can I say? That guy's an enigma on the level of Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro, and all of his unique ideologies and worldviews certainly carry over here, and that makes the game and the experience of playing it unlike any other.