It may not have the fun RPG gameplay of its predecessors, but the platforming/RPG combo is super fun in its own right. 90% of my high rating for this though comes from its story. Probably the darkest and most heartfelt story I've ever seen from a Mario game, the characters are endearing and tragic, and the ending is very emotional. First game that made me cry.

In terms of gameplay, this one improves on many things from Sun and Moon, and adds a lot of cool features and new Ultra Beasts. However, the story is just a beat for beat retread of Sun/Moon except worse, downplaying and dumbing down certain character's roles. All in all, not much here that makes it worth playing over the originals.

"Sequel" to my favourite game ever and it lives up to it! The combat system is difficult to grasp, but once you do it's super fun and rewarding. Alrest is a gorgeous world and has many enjoyable characters. The story loses track of itself sometimes but overall it's fantastic and builds on the lore of Xenoblade nicely.