@Apollo Justice ,now I finally have the time....
So with that out of the way here is my Xenoblade Chronicles 2 67 hours non spoilers review:
Forward:
I only played XC 3D on the New 3DS for over 120 hours, that said I only know the terms in Xenoblade but I am not an combat expert or anything, that said I will try my best to explain the XC2 combat as thorough as possible.
First impressions:
I bought my XC2 special edition, the box was pretty large and quite heavy, the cartridge was of course in the steel book. However, the steel book only contains the cartridge and nothing else. So if anyone wants the plastic boxart or expect the special edition to have the original boxart please aware of this.
The controls were way better than XC 3D, and so are the graphics of course even though I have said I am a huge fan of the more anime CGI style. Speaking of...
I aware the CGI isn't everyone's cup of tea but it's definitely for me, so I wasn't too disappoint on the artsyle.
In depth analysis:
(Disclaimer: the PROS, MIXED, AND CONS and merely my own personal aspects.)
PROS:
- Again mention the new artstyle and graphics, this is very subjective but I think Xenoblade went with more modern anime artsyle like Saitou's, Nomura's and many others. Other NPCs aren't all designed by Saitou though. And landscape now is a huge improvement over XC, and on par with X. Which means
- Characters overall are great, Pyra is awesome, Rex is awesome, Nia is awesome, even Tora is more appealing than Riki... and...
- Cutscenes are probably the most enjoyable, they may be long but hey I enjoy watching those cutscenes, this also leads to...
- MUSIC.. NUFF SAID
- The fact that they you can rewatch those cutscenes is also a huge benefit, and yes, all cutscenes and switch language, and some can even change the weather and daytime. There's also more cutscenes on other stuff that I won't revel it yet...
- The world build overall is more complex than XC, which is actually good imo, I still need to see if the complex world building will make the story epic as the first.
- The controls is better than Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, I notice I sort of squished my numb on my New 3DS XL after hours of playing.
- The fact that you can switch map style is great, at first I thought I will hate the all map style but sometimes it helped a lot when I am searching stuff.
- Rare Blades... which is one of the main reason why I enjoy grinding and battling. My personal favs are Newt, Electra, Finch,and surprisingly... Floren... he's probably the best healer on my crew besides Dromarch.
- After defeating unique monster you can just battle it again after activating the tomb stone.
- Quest are much more easy to complete or navigate... sort of...
- Heart to Hearts have voice actings, which is really cool.
MIXED
- Voice acting... not all VA are perfect... Tora has the best voice for a Nopon, Pyra's English VA somewhat doesn't fit her well... but she still nails it nonetheless. Rex as long as he doesn't scream or rage he's also ok. Nia at first I have a bit of grudge on her voice but I'm getting used to it. I also give a shout out on Floren's English VA which imo his VA nails Floren's voice as a trap... I mean literally a trap, the fact that Floren can be have both manly and feminine tone is just...wow... not even Japanese VA can do this, Floren literally sounds like a girl in Japanese.
- The cutscene were awesome but some are unusually long even though they tend to be important. Also...
- There were unnecessary anime cliches, not a flaw but just need to mention...
- Collecting Aux Cores and then need to refine them isn't a hassle but I'm sure it will be annoying with some Aux core that requires rare collectibles.
- Handheld graphics isn't as bad as how some people say. It isn't perfect but I never felt that the graphic is so bad when playing. It does have minor frame drops but this doesn't happen too often.
- Tutorials... are a bit mediocre... and you can still somewhat get tutorials by buying those infos in each regions...
- Quest are more manageable but this also means that the quests can be pretty lengthy.
- The battle system is okay, good when dealing with monster at higher level if you know how to do Driver combos and Blade combos right. The fact that some arts you have to get HP potions can a bit of hassle when they don't fly to your place but far away, or even in a lake or water.
- Merc groups are cool but not really if some has huge requirements and a lot of time.
- Having collection points are fine but sometimes can also be a hassle too
- Affinity chart is also okay but I would also hope for skill trees to return if possible.
CONS
- Absence of armor customization... they could have implemented it in the game at least for the drivers...maybe I will get to understand why they don't add but this is probably the biggest flaw for this game.
- The game often has long loading time for a Switch game...
- The map doesn't blur out the areas you haven't reach actually isn't good, and the fact that when seeing the map won't directly show you where you are is also annoying but glad this will change.
- Unlike XC where you can still run around when choosing entering the menu, XC2 directly goes to the menu, this can be a hassle sometimes.... but oh well, it is what it is.
- In or to cancel lock on, you have to engage into attack and then cancel your attack is annoying whenever I accidentally press R and lock on a high level enemy.
- A character named Zeke... disappointed me a lot... his role in the game was pretty dumb and cliche...
So far these are my analysis I can think, tell me what do you guys think.
