Xenoblade is one of those games that's carried so hard by its narrative that it makes up for the oddly complex waiting game that is its combat. The first half of this game is amazing, though it falls off pretty hard once you begin the trek onto Mechonis. You don't get to explore the other Titan much before it blows up and takes all of its quests with it. After this point the game spends the rest of its length making you unlearn what you knew of the Monado, making your allies into villains without foreshadowing, reviving your dead friends, and turning the plot into one where you and your friends kill god. If you're like me and like to skip quests and grind them all out later in the game when you need exp, this became a huge issue as one of the final bosses is notoriously cheap if you're under-levelled. It's a good start and the ideas established here become to much more fleshed out in games to come.