It's as awesome a game as it was back then, and the QoL changes are definitely welcome. The new chapter... Exists, I guess. It's fun to play, and it's nice to get more Melia, but the story really feels like filler content.

I was so disappointed by XC2's direction that it mostly made me want to replay the first one again. I had started replaying Wii version, then they announced DE, so I waited and played that one instead. No regrets.

Nowadays, it would be very hard for me to choose between XC1 and 3 for my favourite though. 3 hits right in the feels in so many places, and its main cast is so good.

[–] kratoz29@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I keep reading about Xenoblade 2 being the weaker of the trilogy, very discouraging to keep me in the franchise 😅

But it should pay off as I see no complaints with X3, as you just pointed out.

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 1 points 1 year ago

2 has... problems. It looks like a bingo of bad anime tropes and terrible character designs. It's almost pervy comedy harem anime territory at times. You've probably heard cringe as a complaint, and yeah, it has that, quite a bit of it. It's not all that bad, but when it is, it's terrible.

It also has a pseudo-gatcha system (no actual microtransactions, thank you for that) to unlock optional characters. These all have side quests tied to them. Some are absurdly rare, hundreds of hours of farming and opening random capsules kind of rare. I hate it.

Mechanically, fights are fun at least, and of course it brings a bit of context that is a bit important to 3, so it's hard to recommend skipping it if you want the full story.

Weird thing, the XC2 DLC episode, a prequel of sort, was very good. It's short, but focused on a small group of likeable characters, and it's like they concentrated the good parts of the main game in a neat, fun package.