This is a very flawed game in most aspects. The combat is a boring slog, and while it's very rewarding once you understand the blade combo/elemental orb/chain attack system it still never feels particularly fun. It has slow movement and attack speed making it feel like a step down compared to XC1 and XCX, with the systems especially being terrible compared to XCX's class, overdrive, and soul arts systems which are a blast whether you have a full grasp on them or not. The downgrade on the combat combined with your blades being obtained through a gacha system just makes the whole combat experience disappointing.

The gameplay isn't any better outside of combat, if anything it's worse. Field skills slow down the pace of the game and make you micromanage your blades to get just what you need, and that's assuming the gacha element has even allowed you to receive the field skills you need or not. I can't think of a single memorable side quest plot or gameplay wise, none of them are particularly fun or rewarding to go through. The different titans and maps don't provide much reason to explore as doing so will almost always lead you to the games boring combat and negligible rewards. Fortunately most combat in the game can be skipped just by running away, but I'd much rather have a game where the combat is fun enough that I chose to engage with it.

The story is... frustrating. It's got some high highs for sure, especially at the end where it almost starts feeling like the final acts of Matrix Reloaded or Neon Genesis Evangelion, but there are a lot of low lows throughout the game, especially in the first half. The high highs, to me, make it worth going through the game, and if you're a fan of XC1 I think it's absolutely worth seeing it through. The story was the reason I kept playing and finished the game, so I think that's worth something in spite of it's problems.

Characters are in a similar lane as the story, with some great ones and plenty of not so good ones. Nia's arc was done pretty well, Morag and most of Torna are enjoyable the whole way through, and other characters have their own nice moments. Tora sucks though, I'm cool with having a nopon party member but they didn't need to make them a creep. Rex and Pyra/Mythra have nice moments together and also really weird and bad moments together. The core characters for the most part are fun, but the scene to scene moments these characters can have is really really wonky and poorly done, especially Pyra and Mythra.

Overall the game is just fine, it's a rollercoaster ride in terms of quality but it's best moments are good enough that I can't personally give it a negative rating. It's hard to say whether I would recommend this game or not to someone, so instead I'll use my final words to shill for Xenobalde Chronicles X instead. It is easily my favorite in the series from the 3 games I've played and I hope more Xenoblade fans give it a shot.

This game goes so fucking hard. An amazing action game with an enjoyable JRPG story that's a blast whether you're engaging in the combat or engaged in the story through cutscenes. I found the side quests pretty enjoyable from a narrative perspective as well, they may not always be the most complex gameplay wise but they really add character to the world and the game as a whole. It has some of the best boss fights of any game I've ever played, really only rivaled by Dark Souls.

Easily my GOTY so far and possibly my favorite action game.