i want to love this game, i really do.
i think the callbacks to xenogears are WONDERFULLY done. i was losing my mind over n paralleling grahf and m paralleling miang and elly at the same time. fei and noah's parallels also go hard.
i love the characters, their relations, and the way they feel so alive on the field and in cutscenes. post-game battle dialogue seems to be lacking but i can forgive it considering how animated they are elsewhere.
gameplay is the best in the series too, more so than x, which surprised me! the ost is arguably one of the best too.
i think what this game does well, it carries out excellently, especially chapters 5-6. but after that? it kind of falls flat on its face.
chapter 7 really felt broken to me. z is a wonderful concept, but he isn't executed well.
what bothers me the most about this game, is the fact that future connected was stated to be directly connected to the future of the xenoblade series, and the things that were brought up in it are hardly tied in. which makes some sense, given the fact that the ending of this game is a timeloop/time resuming... regardless i hope it will be touched up in the dlc.
also nothing about the conduit at all? seriously? you can't just drop a plot point like that. we have waited essentially 5 years for a tie in to 1&2 and it hardly feels like it. that's what ruins the game for me.
if it were standalone, or if there were not returning characters/elements from the numbered blade games i would be far happier with this game. but i'm not, so there.
but really, i do think this game executes a lot of things incredibly well. i basically played for 4 days straight without sleeping because i was so hooked.
i also think the first cutscene of the game tying into the final one was beautiful. i never would've guessed that was what was happening, so i'm glad there was a timeloop twist.

don't let my disdain deter you from loving the game. make your own choice, take your own path, that's the message this game brought up!