There's like a 10-hour stretch in here that works really well. The story is moving forward at an exciting pace, characters are having compelling arcs, combat really hits its stride, and it just feels so engaging to play.
But the game is longer than 10 hours, and the first 5 or so are pretty boring. Combat doesn't get a chance to shine until you have four party members, and until then you just repeat the same tiny amount of moves on the same character archetypes. The lock system also doesn't really function until you've got a full party, since breaking locks can be genuinely impossible for a lot of the early game. But, and not to sound like the stereotypical rpg fan, it really does get good about 10 hours in. Swapping out characters and utilizing the massive amount of combo attacks feels great, and SP regen is less of a slog when you can just swap to somebody with a full bar. Some of the lategame optional bosses are so fun when they're allowed to take full advantage of your full moveset.
But, to be honest, I don't really play RPGs for the gameplay. It can be great, but I come in for solid stories supported by memorable characters. And, unfortunately, Sea of Stars just doesn't always have that. The story itself is interesting enough, with some fun twists within that 10-hour chunk, but most of the characters are just so boring. Valere and Zale are the biggest point of support for the return to silent protagonists in RPGs that I've ever seen. Like, sure, they talk, but they never say anything of consequence, and talk almost identically to each other. At least with silent protagonists your mind can fill in the gaps and make them look cool. These two just give you nothing to work with. There are two standouts, though, in Garl and Resh'an, who have actually decipherable personalities and are given by far the best material to work with. I'm a sucker for "normal guy trying his best," so Garl worked for me right away, but the lore behind Resh'an is so cool and exciting that I wish the game was almost entirely about him. The game fluctuates between the interesting conversations with fun characters that games like Chrono Trigger are known for, to flat pieces of cardboard contributing nothing of value.
I can't help but sound more negative than I am about this game, because so much of it is so close to being incredible. I had a really good time with this game sometimes, and the animations and pixel art are absolutely breathtaking the whole way through. I just think the writing and pacing could have been tightened up significantly, because it really is good when it wants to be.

also the game glitched out in the final dungeon and permanently softlocked me which kinda sucks lol

If Tetsuya Takahashi wanted to end Future Redeemed in a way to satisfy fans in the beyond after XC3's incredible ending. Well spark, my dude. You exceeded my expectations and then some. As a fan of the Xeno games since the time of Xenogears. Future Redeemed encompasses all the necessary callbacks, references, easter eggs, and precious moments we were waiting for.

I was captivated by the countless affinity scenes(moments you can see out in the world without any level or party member requirement) that struck me the most with the experience of all the past Xenoblade Chronicles games. And while, I wish there were even more to the point of fan service. I understand why Monolith Soft didn’t do so. It’s a delicate thread to balance for the fans to an extent they will be satisfied without over-gorging too much. And yet I am astounded at how great these scenes I saw within the expansion that evoked a sense of satisfaction. Some were bittersweet, some heartwarming, and some I couldn’t help but be amused at the sheer cheekiness. It is Xenoblade through and through. So you will experience a wide range in the emotional spectrum.

Gameplay didn’t change much like in Torna. The Xenoblade 3 combat system makes a welcome return, with the addition of unity combos and unity setups to mix things up a bit. Familiar and a mix of unfamiliar systems in place to capture player interest more into the gameplay-focus of Xenoblade. I thought the systems were decent. Didn’t need to go too complex or too simple. There is plenty of customization here as well. And I felt the tutorials do a good job explaining the old and new mechanics. Music as expected of Monolith Soft's composer team hits all the right notes. Players will recognize familiar tracks and new tracks.

I greatly appreciate the interconnected zones here, than in Torna due to the implementation of an increase in platforming and secrets. It’s not as deep as the intricate layers you see in Dark Souls. But zones flow seamlessly into other regions you will traverse and I found them to be a good length to explore and fight in. It’s not super large; to the extent you need to spend ‘x’ hours to reach one end of a zone into another zone. There is careful thought and precision by Monolith to make beautiful environments and secrets worth finding feel natural as past Xenoblade games were designed. And the expansion flourishes as a result. You do have new field mechanics to play around with, to reach new areas like repairing broken ladders. And other methods which I won’t say since it's better to experience that in-game. But suffice it to say I had fun exploring once again in Future Redeemed just like the past entries. Including X.

One last bit of praise. It is an absolute pleasure once again to see two familiar characters. There are so many moments, I have wished so hard in the past to witness and it has come to fruition now in Future Redeemed. So their presence creates a new dynamic I don't often see in Jrpg's or DLC expansions.

Moving on, while I consider the expansion excellent. There were some things that did tickle my mixed feelings. I don’t consider it a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency, I'm noting the qualities to let readers know ahead of time.

Certain unlocks for the characters you play are locked behind some side quests and through exploration, in secret areas, and opening relic chests. These will unlock gem unlocks, accessories, affinity growth charts, and arts. several can be easy to spot and therefore unlock whatever the above for each character at your leisure. But a small to decent chunk can be a bit tricky to spot. By the endgame, I had mostly everyone’s slots unlocked. With only a couple of my party members features locked since I wasn’t as thorough in exploring everything. Despite the fact I cleared 90%+ of every zone and completed I would say 95% of all sidequests. So this mix of forcing the player to unlock their innate features for each character feels a bit forced to make players explore. This is fine for me because I love to explore, except I also want to get most of my party member's abilities and features through natural-based progression. Meaning when a new chapter begins. Release a third of my parties accessories, arts, gems, and affinity growth charts locked status. I can understand why Monolith Soft tried to shake things up with this approach to encourage exploration which is worth seeing. Except for me, I’m left shaking my head at the potential my party could’ve had naturally instead of being forced to explore.

Secondly, I am flabbergasted by an important scene that was not properly labeled on the map with a giant exclamation point or affinity scene after witnessing a story cutscene in chapter 4. Which revealed massive lore context we needed from XC3. Without going into spoilers too much. Visit someone's(not going to say the name of the character’s) workshop after viewing the story cutscene on a mountain(located at a high elevation) in chapter 4. This will happen naturally, but players need to go back to the workshop to notice the scene. The map does not display it. Hopefully, this is a bug and the developers missed it. But as a Xeno lore dude, I'm shaking my head, if people miss the scene. So please don’t forget about checking the workshop!

Another point of mixed feeling would’ve been further time to flesh out two characters. Not going to say names, since this is a non-spoiler review. But, I consider two of the cast within the expansion, somewhat needing extra development and cutscenes to shine. There are familiar cast members that kinda take out the spotlight from the two characters and as a result, they don’t shine as much in my eyes. While understandable due to other characters' sheer presence, I think additional affinity scenes could’ve been used to delve deeper into the bonds of our party and create a cohesive party at hand. Thereby, allowing the cast to bond thoroughly and make the endgame stand out a just a little bit larger.

Not a nitpick at the endgame chapters. Since I consider it a fitting farewell to the trilogy. The expansion has the weight and reach of the first game. The grand presence of the second game and the lessons learned from Torna in creating side quests that are not needed to progress through the story by community levels. Expands what we already know in the third game, Delving deep into the missing context and cues we so desperately needed and wished for. And I would say the developers delivered so much. It is exactly what I needed from Takahashi and his team. The connection of the past and future is connected, all while capturing the wonderful magic that is unique in every Xeno game. With a great main cast and soulful music once again struck me deep in the heart. Satisfying gameplay loop and worthwhile cutscenes every Xeno series fan needs to experience. It’s been an incredible journey seeing how far they’ve come since the first Xenoblade game and from the time of Xenogears. For any Xeno series fan. This expansion is easily a must-play. And for us long-time fans since Gears and Saga. One to not miss out on.

9/10

Edit: Grammar and replacing repeated words
Edit 2: On my 2nd point above regarding a scene not being labeled properly. It actually is labeled on the map. The point of interest is covered by a hammer icon. Thanks to my friend @TehLostOne for the correction.

Twilight Princess is such a strange game that I want to love a lot more than I do, but just can’t due to its glaring flaws. The game keeps throwing a bunch of conceptually interesting ideas at you, but a lot of them end up feeling half-baked. Doesn’t help that the reaction to Wind Waker clearly caused them to make a massive overcorrection here to such a degree that the game ends up feeling like it was made by obligation rather than actual desire.

I remember hating the pacing of this game the first time around, and this playthrough made me realize that it really isn’t that terrible. It’s still pretty bad, but I get what they were going for with the long intro establishing Link’s casual life and relationships. The game unfortunately kind of just forgets about this later on, to the point where I saw Ilia in the credits and was like “oh yeah, she was in this game.” It’s odd that there are snippets of the story where it feels like Link and Ilia’s relationship is supposed to be important, but her role ends up ultimately being a plot device. For how much the first third of this game focuses on story, it’s awfully messy. I actually laughed out loud at the part in Hyrule Castle where the resistance guys show up and help dispatch a group of enemies that’s smaller than most groups of enemies you’ve already fought at this point in the game.

The tear collecting stuff in between the first 3 dungeons is still a slog. The worst part of the game by far is everything you have to do in the Lanayru region to enter the Lakebed Temple. This is the part that I think really tainted my view of the game years ago and prevented me from finishing it when the HD version on the Wii U came out. There’s just so much boring crap you have to sit through before you can enter a dungeon, you know the parts of the game that at least feel like they’re trying to do something interesting. The pacing does improve significantly after you gain the ability to change back and forth between human and wolf Link, but you still have parts like getting back Ilia’s memories that slow the pace to a crawl.

Twilight Princess’s overworld is initially impressive until you realize how little of it is worth exploring. Twilight Princess seems obsessed with the idea that bigger is better, when in reality all it does it make a lot of the game more tedious. Even dungeons end up overstaying their welcome sometimes.

Speaking of dungeons, this is one of the parts of the game that even haters of Twilight Princess seem to agree are at least decent. I do think the dungeons in this are overall good, but aren’t as great as they’re made out to be. They’re either pretty fun despite being a bit long in the tooth, or a slog to get through. Arbiter’s Grounds and Temple of Time I do really like a lot. They’re definitely the standout dungeons for me. Both have interesting mechanics, puzzles, and have enemies that actually feel like a threat. The only real stinkers are Lakebed and City in the Sky, with Snowpeak almost making my stink list but I think the originality of it makes up for me having a frustrating time with it. I’ll at least applaud the developers for making the dungeons feel like actual places that would have been used in the past. The atmosphere and scale is definitely on point in this game. Also I believe this is the only Zelda game where dungeons have heart pieces in them, and I never really got why they never did this again. I always thought that aspect of this game was neat.

Boss fights are generally cool, however they seem to vary quite a bit in quality. I’ll excuse some of the earlier bosses, particularly Fyrus and Morpheel, for their difficulty seeing as they’re still pretty fun fights. Stallord is still the coolest fight in the game that makes me wish the spinner had more implementation. The other dungeon bosses are honestly kind of meh. Blizzeta is obnoxious due to the ice physics, while Gohma and Argorok are absolute jokes. I guess I’ll give some points to Argorok for at least having a fight with good atmosphere. Admittedly, the Zant fight, while still easy, is one of my favorites for being a multiphase battle that remixes previous boss/mini boss fights. The Ganondorf fight is a weird one, because while I don’t dislike it, I do believe people embellish the quality of it. The Puppet Zelda phase is a less interesting Phantom Ganon tennis volley, the Beast Ganon phase is boring and takes longer than it needs to, the horseback phase takes like 30 seconds if that, and the final phase is essentially Wind Waker’s Ganondorf fight again only worse. I get that Zelda games aren’t necessarily supposed to be hard, but it’s bizarre to me that King Bulblin does significantly more damage than Ganondorf does. Ultimately, this really does spell out my main problem with Twilight Princess as a whole. It’s very good at spectacle and presentation, but when it comes to the actual gameplay and any sort of mechanics it can be a bit underwhelming.

Oh yeah, there’s also the sword techniques which are neat I guess, but I only ever ended up using helm splitter (which I guess includes shield attack, but whatever) and the back slice frequently. The other ones are either too situational or simply outclassed by a different basic move. Why would I ever use the charged jump attack when I could just spin attack quicker? Why would I ever use mortal draw when it only works on basic bitch enemies that die to a jump slash anyway? It’s not like I think that the combat is bad or anything, but whenever I see people talk about how this game’s combat is so much better than any other Zelda due to these skills I really can’t help but roll my eyes. I will say though, hitting enemies with your sword in this game is super satisfying thanks to the sound effects. Plus being able to do the fancy sword sheathing animation after certain fights is a cool little detail. Again, mostly a presentation thing, but still cool.

I feel like I’m shitting on this game a bit, but I think it’s mainly because while it’s good, I feel like it could and should have been way better than it ended up being. A lot of cool ideas, great presentation, impressive scale for the platform it’s on, great atmosphere, and some memorable dungeons and boss fights. Also Midna. Can’t forget Midna. Basically, yes there’s a lot to appreciate in Twilight Princess. Ultimately though, I can’t help but place it below all the other 3D Zelda games.

Since we all know at this point that this game is an absolute masterpiece, let this review be a sort of tribute to this game's unbelievable soundtrack. Zelda's music has always been some of the most iconic in gaming, but this has to be my favorite OST in the entire series. There were multiple times while playing where I had to put the controller down because I was so caught off guard by the jaw-dropping music. It features brand new, excellent compositions as well as tracks that mash up multiple different motifs present throughout the series in a way that seems almost impossible. Some of the best examples of what I'm talking about can be seen in the Wind Temple and Hyrule Castle themes. To me, these two tracks are masterclasses in composition and should be considered some of the best pieces of music in Zelda history.