This game changed my life. This was my most anticipated game for almost three years, and yet it still somehow exceeded all my expectations. I don't expect to experience anything like that in my life ever again.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is an incredibly special game. Two years before Breath of the Wild popularized open-air game design fueled by player curiosity, Xenoblade X invites players to explore a world so bizarre, intriguing, and inviting that you won't help but be able to become enamored with the freedom Monolith Soft has given you.

The world itself is the key ingredient that makes this game work so well. Each of the game's continents feel distinct and visually captivating, yet manage to tell a cohesive story about this world and the hostility it has towards human life. When you acquire Skells and the flight module, exploring the world becomes so seamless and immersive that hours will evaporate by.

The music, while maybe cheesy on a first listen, makes for one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. From epic orchestral to arrangements to modern pop music, this soundtrack is some of Sawano's very best work.

The combat system is incredibly versatile and addictive. While Overdrive does admittedly break the game in half and throws balance out the window, keeping an Overdrive going becomes a minigame unto itself, akin to how Chain Attacks work in other Xenoblade games.

Quests often tell intriguing stories and/or do what they need to - get you out into the world and consistently ignite your curiosity. There will be hours-long instances where you get distracted by so many different things that quests will get put on the backburner for dozens of hours, and yet, everything you do in this game is so compelling and rewarding.

I absolutely love this game and, with a modern port/remaster, I think many people will see that it's one of the greatest games of all time.

I’ve been told that a propensity for smalltalk is one of the little things that reveal someone as American, but even as an introvert who was never super good at it, I never found it as off-putting as some of my friends around the world do. Sure the words themselves are pointless, but I think it’s nice when people can spend a couple seconds establishing some tiny human connection. Of course, when you get into a situation where it drags on for minutes at a time, that’s when the unspoken social contract has been broken. The idea here was to invest a small amount of time to connect and lift the feeling of uncertainty from the air, but once that’s complete, the connection benefit is far outweighed by the social energy required to keep going. When you think about it, this principle of energy input vs. energy return can be generally applied to the effectiveness of a lot of things, and it’s part of the reason I’ve been writing shorter reviews than before. For every second I demand, I should hope to return an appropriate value, and that’s easier to do when maintaining a strong focus. With this in mind, after completing Nier Replicant, I’m sitting here wondering what the thought process was in making players repeat ~15 hours of content across 4 additional playthroughs before seeing the few short scenes which complete the narrative. It’s not that what’s here is terrible, but again, it’s like bad small talk. The story creates little connections and pulls at your heart, but the investment it demands is disproportionate to the return. It creates the same sort of annoyance that you could feel with someone who’s excessively chatty; you go from thinking it’s nice to meet someone so friendly, to wishing they would leave you alone for a while. As beautiful as the game is, and even with how most of it is executed well, that’s the unfortunate feeling that comes to mind as I look back on the experience. It’s nice, it’s fine, but I feel like it chose not to respect my time, making that lack of respect unfortunately go both ways.

When you think about it, the principle of energy input vs. energy return can be generally applied to a lot of things, and it’s part of the reason I’ve been writing shorter reviews. For every second I demand, I hope to return an appropriate value, and that’s easier to do when maintaining a strong focus. With this in mind, after completing Nier Replicant, I’m sitting here wondering what the thought process was in making players repeat ~15 hours of content and complete 5 playthroughs before seeing the few short scenes which complete the narrative. I had the exact same thought when I was finishing Automata, and although I was willing to give it some credit back then, I was surprised to see that the exact same gimmick was already used in the previous game. Just like with Automata, it’s not that what’s here is terrible, but again, it’s like bad small talk. The story is as dramatic as one would hope for, but the investment it demands is disproportionate to the return. It creates the same annoyance that you could feel with someone who’s excessively chatty: you go from thinking it’s nice to meet someone, to wishing they would leave you alone for a while. As beautiful as the game is and how well most of it has been executed, that’s the unfortunate feeling that fills my mind as I look back on the experience. It’s all fine, but I feel like it chose not to respect my time, which made the lack of respect go both ways.

When you think about it, the principle of optimizing energy input vs. energy return is a fundamental rule of nature, and it’s part of the reason I’ve been writing shorter reviews (other than general laziness, of course). Every second that you spend reading this should be worth your while, and that’s easier to do when staying focused. With this in mind, after finishing this game, I’m sitting here wondering why players had to complete 5 playthroughs before seeing the ending cutscenes. I had the same thought when finishing Automata years ago, but while I was willing to give it some credit back then, I was surprised to see that the same gimmick was used in the previous game. Just like with Automata, it’s not that what’s here is terrible, but again, it’s like bad small talk. The story is as dramatic as one would hope for, but the investment it demands is disproportionate to the return. It’s sorta like how I’ve intended to watch that new Batman movie for a while now, but the three-hour runtime creates such a mental block that I never decide to actually start watching it. It would probably be a fun enough little movie, but I know Batman will just be doing the things I expect him to do, so I don’t think I would get three hours worth of enrichment from it. As beautiful as Nier is and how well most of it has been executed, that’s the unfortunate feeling that fills my mind as I look back on the experience. It’s fun but widely uninriching, and I feel like it chose not to respect my time, which made the lack of respect go both ways.

When you think about it, the principle of optimizing energy input and return doesn’t just apply to media, it’s a rule of nature, and it’s part of the reason I’ve shortened my reviews. Every second that you spend reading them should be worth your while, and that’s an easier promise for me to keep when I stay focused. If I don’t, then even my audience might lose focus, making even the parts that they did engage with quickly fade from memory. With this in mind, after finishing this game, I’m sitting here wondering why players had to repeat so many hours of content in Nier before seeing a satisfying conclusion. I had the same thought when finishing Automata years ago, but while I was willing to give it some credit back then, I was surprised to see that the same gimmick had already been used in the previous game. It’s not that what’s here is terrible, but again, it’s like drawn-out small talk. The story is as dramatic as one would hope for, but the investment it demands is disproportionate to the return, especially when a plot that’s fairly obvious dips into indulgent melodrama. It’s not like the media you consume needs to be analyzed as such a clinical and unartistic transaction of course, wasting time has a lot of its own benefits, but a line needs to be drawn somewhere for the best use of your time. As beautiful as the game is and even with how most of it is executed well, that’s the unfortunate feeling I get when I look back on the experience. It’s fun, it’s fine, but I feel like it chose not to respect my time, which made the lack of respect go both ways.

When you think about it, the principle of optimizing energy input and return doesn’t just apply to media, it’s a fundamental rule of nature, and it’s part of the reason I’ve shortened my reviews. Every second that you spend reading them should be worth your while, and that’s an easier promise for me to keep when I stay focused. If I don’t, then even my audience might lose focus, making even the parts that they did engage with quickly fade from memory. With this in mind, after finishing this game, I’m sitting here wondering why players had to repeat so many hours of content in Nier before seeing a satisfying conclusion. I had the same thought when finishing Automata years ago, but while I was willing to give it some credit back then, I was surprised to see that the same gimmick was used in the previous game. Speaking of Automata, I was really split on whether I should do a standard review for this game like I did for Automata, or whether I should be a self-indulgent hack like I am right now. I decided on this format mostly because doing a repeat of “it’s a fine game, but its obvious plot, melodrama, and repetition bugged the hell out of me” would be a bit pointless. It’s not that writing another review like that would be terrible, but again, it’s like drawn-out small talk. The investment it would demand is disproportionate to the return. It’s not like the media you consume needs to be analyzed as such a clinical transaction of course (wasting time has its own benefits) but a line needs to be drawn for the best use of your time. As well as most of it may-or-may-not have been executed, that’s the unfortunate feeling that probably fills your mind as you look back on this experience. At the very least, *I* had fun, I think it’s fine, and maybe that’s how Nier’s creators felt, so in the end it goes both ways.

Disclaimer: I am not a high-end raider. This is all from the perspective of a casual player. I played this game for 3.5 years. TL;DR this expansion sucks. I have actually fallen asleep going through quests in this expansion.

Coming back to this game (and this review) after 6 months to grind a bit for mogtomes---my opinion on this expansion has not changed much. Outside of raiding, there is virtually nothing new for casual players to do. Gameplay is still the 1231231234123-type gameplay we've known for years, and dungeons are still straight lines so your female au'ra dark knight can waste no time getting back to afking in Limsa in their dollskill-tier "goth" glam as soon as possible. It seems the developers have taken notice of that, as they're dumbing down old content and completely revamping PVP maps that don't need it because I guess the community is too stupid to look at their map for more than 5 seconds and actually PLAY the game. If they change up any of the Stormblood trials to compensate for the fact that trust AI is braindead, it will spell the end of any remaining fun content in the game.

There is little reason to log into this game every day. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen any hunt trains whatsoever in the 2 years since this expack came out, and I played for a good year after I finished the main story. Yes, I am well-aware of their "we want you to play other games!" spiel and lots of people LOVE whipping that one out to deflect criticism, but that doesn't change the fact that the content they're putting out is sloppy and low-effort. New content can be beaten in a 2-3 weeks, maybe even a week if you feel like it, and the patch cycle is every 5 months. Who is this game even for anymore? Where is the longevity, the challenge? Casual players won't stick around for short-lived content and hardcore raiders won't stick around for half-assed raids. If FF16 isn't taking developers away like people deluded themselves into believing, what the hell are they doing over at Square??? WHY DID IT TAKE 10 YEARS TO ADD PHYSICAL/MAGIC ATTACK INDICATORS???? This is THE most profitable Final Fantasy game TO DATE. Where is the money going? Modders can fix up the game's horrendous UI (amongst other things) in a few days, but the developers drag their feet and claim "it's too resource intensive :/" when asked about QOL changes.

The story right now is just FF4 fanfiction, and quest design has gone down the tubes (it was never that good in the first place, honestly. I don't know how I put up with it for 2000+ hours). I'm not sure how many more "go talk to person A, talk to person B, report to person C and go back to A" and pseudo-stealth quests I can handle. Alongside this, the whole "power of friendship" theme is getting a bit tired. Using it as the main theme of Endwalker and now FF16 has turned it into an empty platitude and made the writing painfully predictable. I have no issue with this sort of story, but when it's poorly executed (like how this and 16 was) it starts to get grating. It's such a messy wrap-up of a decade-long story that it's actually incredible. They spent 10 years beating into our heads that summoning primals is bad and tempering is dangerous but at the end of 6.0 they summon Garuda and all the other primals to hitch a ride on our spaceship because who gives a single flying fuck about consistency anymore. I don't even remember WHY they summoned them in the first place. Aether supply, maybe? That's usually how they weasel their way out of bad writing. Things happen in Endwalker not because it's the natural flow of the story, but because the writers needed it to happen. For example, the threat of the Telophoroi is instantly negated within 5 minutes of MSQ because we just so happen to create this invincibility device that we just so happen have the ability to mass produce. Crisis averted! Zenos can also bodysnatch people for whatever reason. He had ample opportunity to throw the WoL off the nearest cliff or incapacitate a Scion, but no, he decides to just stand and stare at them like a fucking moron. God forbid we have any stakes in the literal end-of-the-world expansion, right?

In conclusion, after 3 years of this game, I think I'm ready to throw in the towel. Unless they drastically overhaul the gameplay system, the quest design, get better writers, and actually give Y'shtola a fucking character arc because it's been 10 goddamn years and she's still a cardboard cutout (and kill Thancred because he sucks), I don't think I'll be coming back to this game anytime soon. A shame that it ends like this because I really did enjoy the game prior to this expansion, but with the dumbing down of content, said content being formulaic, and the devs barely taking feedback, I don't see the point in dropping $15 to play this game anymore. I wouldn't mind a week-long subscription to be quite frank, since that's about the amount of time I play this game anymore. They already nickle-and-dime you for basic shit like changing your name ($10 btw) and transferring worlds, what's a $5 sub tier going to hurt?

If you read this far, thanks for sticking around, you also probably think I hate this game, and if you haven't played any FF games before, I would not recommend this as your first. It is nowhere near the other FFs in terms of quality, so play literally any other game in the franchise. Any criticism of this expansion, whether it be about the lack of content or said content being lackluster is always met with "Just play another game", or "Just do old content!" and it drives me up the goddamn wall. This is an EXPANSION, it's supposed to add NEW content to keep you playing. Telling people to just play old content defeats the purpose of an expansion pack and is also a blatant deflection of criticism. I don't really care if it's "kino" or whatever you lot describe everything as, Square isn't going to give you a sub discount for defending their milquetoast output. Maybe I'll actually sub again and go through the rest of the patches to write another review before Dawntrail, but I literally had to drag myself through the first few awful post-patches in 2022 before I just quit the game completely. It truly blows my mind that people praise this as one of the best JRPG stories ever written. Sure, if you haven't played anything else! Anyway, the music is the last remaining positive of this game, and even that is wearing thin. There's more to music than nondescript chanting vocals.

I’ve said this a few times before but this time I am not joking. This is the worst gaming experience I’ve ever had. Hundreds of hours of solid build up, an amazing predecessor, all for this 100 hours of pure mouldy dick cheese.

I’m not even gonna tag spoilers because I genuinely hope I spoil you and put you off. Everybody you thought was dead, is still alive. Anybody that did die, alive. Anybody that was dead before the events of the first game, alive. Anybody that was evil, not actually evil they were just being controlled. Anybody that made a remotely bad choice in their life, it was the actions of some mystical dookie god fuck I hate this game oh my god

The game thinks it’s so much more mature and clever than it is, you have characters in these dire situations making decisions like 13 year olds it makes me physically sick. The only reason I picked up this entire franchise was because of the cover image of this game man I wanna die

Combat is so gas my favourite turn based system ever peaked here, Rean is gas too idgaf if I have to see Lloyd again after Reverie I’m ending it all

I sincerely believe everyone involved in the production deserves some form of punishment whether it be suspension from game development or jail time.

Thank you