While I concede there are a lot of games of worse quality out there, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the game I hate the most in the world. Xenoblade 2 throws out what was good in the original and replaces it with porn material and annoying gacha mechanics. Any improvement they did make is near impossible to learn due to the awful tutorials this game provides.

Often times people boil down the differences between Xenoblade 1 and 2 and call Xenoblade 2 more "anime". While I agree with the message behind this, the truth is both games are "anime" and take a lot of themes and tropes from shonen animes; the difference between the two is what they take, and what they do with it. Xenoblade 2 takes too many of these tropes, especially the ones that have more to do with sexualizing women, and don't really mold it in any way beyond the setting. Xenoblade 1, while taking a lot of tropes from shonen animes, still tells a great story with a unique setting and premise, and at the same time mostly avoids the negative tropes and avoids the jerk off material. I think the dichotomy between these games just goes to show that tropes aren't inherently bad, but what matters is what you do with them and what you take from them.

Overall I still give Xenoblade 2 1 star because there is still something resembling a good game here, I like the premise behind the settings, I like a few of the characters who aren't so terribly designed, and so on. The thing is though, for me everything this game has fails miserably. While I didn't finish the game, if half of the chapters leave me this sour, I can't in good faith enjoy the 2nd half even if it is an improvement over the rest. In the end, I find Xenoblade 2 to be one of the most disappointing sequels ever made.