I respect what the Xenoblade 3 team was aiming to do with this third game and I think it was an interesting move on their end when making Xenoblade 2 to turn what was once just a one off game (Xenoblade 1) and span it into this epic trilogy, that doesnt feel forced at all. I personally really liked Xenoblade 2, but I feel like alot of my enjoyment of that first game in hindsight, was it's twist that I, as a newcomer to the series in 2018, did not see coming a mile away. Xenoblade 3 doesnt have the luxery of having a twist like 1 and 2 do, which is ultimately a good thing. This merging of the worlds thing was already elluded to in the ending of 2, so this is more so just a culmination of the 2 stories. All that said, something about Xenoblade 3's story feels like it was hastily put together. The major beats and premise are more than solid. Like a world where humans only live 10 years and only know war, and coming to terms with things like aging, babies and love is a really cool sci fi concept. It's just like, everything past chapter 5 kind of felt underwhelming. Like the villans are probably the weakest in the main series, it REALLY starts riding the line on being Kingdom Hearts esq with its vauge "Mobies this" and "Light that" language it employs, which is a problem I've never really felt with the series up until this game. I'm glad they have continued to stick with the whole deep psycholgical philosophy thing that the entire Xeno series is known for, thats kind of its whole calling card at this point. I just wish the Main Story was a little tighter and more interesting moment to moment. The way I played the game was to primarily experiance the main story, but I did all the Hero Quests I came across, all of the Side Storys and the ocasional side quest, but not many. Honestly, the main gameplay loop of exploring and doing Hero Quests is pretty addictive, and if I had more time and didnt want to move on to other games, I would probably still be doing some more. The world is just fun to explore and traverse. I spent a little over 52 hours in the game by the end. That said, while the combat system is VERY fleshed out, probably one of the most involved I have ever seen in a game, I could not for thr life of me understand it. I ended up playing VERY lame and didnt use 90% of the customization and combat options the game had. I kept all my party members there base class and just killed every monster I came across. It didnt feel very rewarding to play this way and I know I would feel better if I learned the systems in play, but even after watching multiple tutorials, I still couldnt understand it. Its partly like, when I come home from a day of work, thr last thing I wanted to be doing was crunching numbers and racking my brain on how this system works, I was mainly just in the game to experience the story, world and music. So I cant knock points for this at all, the game has such a rich gameplay loop, its just not for me. That said, alot of points in thr game due to the way I played, almost feel like I was walking cut scene to cut scene. There are ALOT of cut scenes in this game, which I dont personally really mind all things considered. Overall, I liked my time with the game. The world and music are top notch as always from Monilthsoft. They REALLY went to town with the increased budget Nintendo clearly gave them after the success of XC2. i just mainly hope after this next expansion finishes, they have the restraint to put a fork in the Xenoblade series and end it there. By all means, continue the Xeno series, but a fresh start with a new gimick from such a tallented studio would be incredible (or continue Xenosaga or something).