tl;dr: If you've played and enjoyed a Ys game, you'll probably like this one too. If you haven't, try out VIII first. If you liked VIII but disliked IX, this one is much closer to VIII than it is to IX.

Playtime: 70h 5m, did everything.

Plot: Fine, better than IX. Not a fan of the pacing, felt like it took a while for me to get into it but I enjoyed how everything panned out. Not the biggest fan of the main crew but I like Karja and most of the side characters.

Gameplay: X contains the debut of the "Cross Action" system, a change from the Seven system that was used in 7/8/9. Rather than controlling a full party, it's just Adol and Karja. You can either control them individually or switch into the Combined mode which changes your moveset and lets you guard most moves. Weaving between solo and combination modes was fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop it in the next game.

They also added a system like orbments from the Kiseki series but it doesn't really affect too much, would like to see them develop this more.

Music: Didn't love any of the battle themes but a lot of the zone and town themes are great. Doesn't have the overall quality of VIII and previous OSTs but it's better than IX for sure.

Exploration: I'm biased towards islands and coastal environments so I was a fan (anything is better than Balduq). Some of the zones are a too large and feel emptier as a result. Also, buried treasures are AWFUL. John Falcom, if you're reading this, never do that again. Controlling the boat during ocean exploration is painful, which leads to...

Naval Battles and Maneuvering: The worst part of the game. Controlling the boat is very clunky and simply not enjoyable. Thankfully I was able to S-rank all of them first try because having to redo any of them would be MISERABLE.

Overall, while it took a bit longer than usual to get into it, once the game hit its stride I had a pretty good time and am looking forward to XI.