Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017)

This game is a lot of fun, and quite its own beast to say the least. I'm 35 hours in, but on modern hardware (4k display, Switch 2) it's waiting for a graphical update. The game is simply unplayable on anything but Switch 1 handheld mode, where it was designed to be played (and where I logged most of my time docked).

The moment it gets a graphical update, I'm going to finish this game and the DLC Torna The Golden Country which is said to have better combat. Until then, it's on the backlogburner.

I’m starting to appreciate why people complain about the resolution scaling in this game. It’s a gorgeous game but sometimes in handheld mode it really does look exceptionally low resolution:

Currently in chapter 6 and have put over 50 hours into it.

What a ride I've had with this one. Bought it soon after release, played it on and off before selling it again. Rebought it years later, started it, ended up immediately lending it to my partner who then beat the game. While my partner is playing XBC3, I finally now have really gotten into XBC2 and making good progress while still exploring a lot of the side content this game offers.

Honestly, this game has a lot of elements that annoyed me in comparison with the first game, but getting the DLC helped with most of those elements, making it a much more chill and enjoyable experience for me than when I first started it. And it's strange how this game progresses; at some point you realise that everything has suddenly opened up and it makes a huge difference in what you can do. All of a sudden I can complete quests quicker, Blades' affinity charts suddenly develop at a high pace and the combat becomes quite interactive and varied.

Pretty sure I've never said, "I hate this fucking game," so many times in my life. I don't, but they sure did their best to make every single quest the most miserable, tedious, stupid experience they possibly could. They all sound simple but then they have 15 parts going back and forth and back and forth, and exploring in this game is atrocious because the map is the worst in any game ever, so what seems like an easy-to-reach quest icon on the map actually takes 35 minutes to reach because it's the farthest point possible from any fast travel point, and then it's also in some stupid spot that requires you jump down somewhere you can't see without the camera being at a perfect angle and hope maybe you won't take too much fall damage one time after 57 attempts. But also some level 87 bird is targeting you so you can't see the map anymore either. 138 hours of this so far.

I have like 15 quests sitting in my queue and I'm just done. Wanted to finish some of the quests for specific rare Blades but I cannot give less of a shit anymore. I'm just gonna go beat the game. Any good points this game has are absolutely ruined by the shitty quests and half of the aspects of the battle system. Fish up a level 2 crab and it takes two hits when I'm level 72. Legit happened earlier. Why would that EVER EVER EVER be a thing.

Review to come in a few days, because I still have the expansion to play, too.

Just poppin' by to say I've put like 105 hours on this in the past week and two days-ish.

Still aspects of both games that I like over the other, but this one has been frustrating in many more ways than XC1 ever could be.

I'm still really enjoying it, obvs. The quests for some of the rare Blades are really wholesome and the story and exploration have been solid. I just wish XC3 didn't come out like two days before pre-planning starts for me. :( Grateful to have a summer break, anyway.

I completed Torna the Golden Country and I decided to see if maybe my review of XC2 was too harsh...

I finished a New Game Plus run and boy do I still stand by my original review of the game. It's absolutely shocking how much more enjoyable the game is when I didn't have spend hours unlocking Rare Blades, assigning Merc Missions and dealing with Field Skill checks. It's quantity over quality, all of these systems could have been cut and would have made the game better. It's also surprising how short the game is if you mainline game, my New Game Plus run took about 30 hours whereas my original play through took around 120 hours.

The story is not very good. I know Monolithsoft isn't the only game dev that does this, but I swear it's like they make this shit up as they go along. The presence of Azurda/Gramps is probably the most infuriating example. He's been around for at least 500 years, yet seemingly has no idea that Amalthus committed mass genocide because of a stupid throwaway line where he says "I don't like to trifle myself with human matters". Instead he plays the wise old figure who helps explain the world, yet Vandham and Jin still has to explain the lifecycle of Blades to Rex for reasons...

I'm optimistic about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Torna the Golden Country was a good course correction and I hope the quality of life improvements in XC Definitive Edition make it to the new entry.