Pretty good. A bit hard for me to discuss what I like about the story and characters as well as certain environments because spoilers but I'll try.
Story and Characters
I know a lot of people say the game only starts getting good after chapter 4 but personally I was interested from the beginning. There are like 2 fan service moments in the entire game so idk what brotubers were complaining about + they had a hot springs scene that wasn't horribly cliche and ended with guys getting beat up(looking at you newsona) so that's a plus in my book.
The actual story itself I think is very good and full of well written characters with Jin, Rex and Zeke being some of my favorites. I actually think that the cast of this game is overall better than the first game by quite a bit.. Zeke reminds me of Bart from Xenogears(he has a Bart recolor in the dlc and his japanese name Sîvrit is the same as Bart's right hand man from Gears) but I definitely like Zeke more as his comedic and serious moments are very good and his dynamic with his blade Pandoria is also pretty funny. Rex is a lot better than people give him credit for but the poor voice directing of the English dub does not help at all. He has a more prominent character arc compared to Shulk and I loved that scene at the beginning of chapter 7 as well as the one in the finale where he goes down the church stairs. Some of his growth feels a bit nebulous though, like what does it mean to fully understand being a blade's driver? The game certainly doesn't tell you seeing as Rex acts pretty much the same before and after this revelation. The main pairing of Pyra/Mythra and Rex I feel was not done that well. There were no real hints or moments where you could tell they were in love with each other to the point where other characters have to make fun of it for you to realize that's what's happening here.
Gameplay
I did not have much trouble with the combat tutorials in this game and felt that they explained things pretty well although they are definitely way too verbose and I'm pretty sure you rarely ever get images to go along with the tutorial. You can't revisit the tutorials either so I can see why people would have trouble with the combat but if you take the time to watch/read a guide you'll get into it in no time and it is a very rewarding combat system, definitely one of my favorites in the genre.
The environment is lacking in variety imo compared to Xenoblade 1, I like the idea of "we had 2 Titans in our first game, how about we have multiple Titans in our second?" but they're just not unique enough for me. At best the areas remind me of an area from XC1 and at worst they blend into each other. For example, Uraya reminds me of Satorl Marsh at night time and Tantal reminds me of Valak Mountains.
Conclusion
This sounds like a lot of complaining but I really do love this game its just easier to discuss the shortcomings it had which are pretty spoiler free as opposed to the really good things the story and characters do which are spoilers
Story and Characters
I know a lot of people say the game only starts getting good after chapter 4 but personally I was interested from the beginning. There are like 2 fan service moments in the entire game so idk what brotubers were complaining about + they had a hot springs scene that wasn't horribly cliche and ended with guys getting beat up(looking at you newsona) so that's a plus in my book.
The actual story itself I think is very good and full of well written characters with Jin, Rex and Zeke being some of my favorites. I actually think that the cast of this game is overall better than the first game by quite a bit.. Zeke reminds me of Bart from Xenogears(he has a Bart recolor in the dlc and his japanese name Sîvrit is the same as Bart's right hand man from Gears) but I definitely like Zeke more as his comedic and serious moments are very good and his dynamic with his blade Pandoria is also pretty funny. Rex is a lot better than people give him credit for but the poor voice directing of the English dub does not help at all. He has a more prominent character arc compared to Shulk and I loved that scene at the beginning of chapter 7 as well as the one in the finale where he goes down the church stairs. Some of his growth feels a bit nebulous though, like what does it mean to fully understand being a blade's driver? The game certainly doesn't tell you seeing as Rex acts pretty much the same before and after this revelation. The main pairing of Pyra/Mythra and Rex I feel was not done that well. There were no real hints or moments where you could tell they were in love with each other to the point where other characters have to make fun of it for you to realize that's what's happening here.
Gameplay
I did not have much trouble with the combat tutorials in this game and felt that they explained things pretty well although they are definitely way too verbose and I'm pretty sure you rarely ever get images to go along with the tutorial. You can't revisit the tutorials either so I can see why people would have trouble with the combat but if you take the time to watch/read a guide you'll get into it in no time and it is a very rewarding combat system, definitely one of my favorites in the genre.
The environment is lacking in variety imo compared to Xenoblade 1, I like the idea of "we had 2 Titans in our first game, how about we have multiple Titans in our second?" but they're just not unique enough for me. At best the areas remind me of an area from XC1 and at worst they blend into each other. For example, Uraya reminds me of Satorl Marsh at night time and Tantal reminds me of Valak Mountains.
Conclusion
This sounds like a lot of complaining but I really do love this game its just easier to discuss the shortcomings it had which are pretty spoiler free as opposed to the really good things the story and characters do which are spoilers
COMPOSTCOMEFORTH
1 year ago