Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Nintendo Switch (Digital)

Some fun moments, but immature writing and waifu tropes make it difficult to enjoy. The main character is extremely boring, most characters are so tropey it would be funny, but the dialogue and voice acting in the first third of the game (English) makes it a chore. GATCHA mechanics with the blades you can get along your journey are annoying. There are too many menus to tweak your characters, making it hard to really customize them efficiently and see the impacts of various combinations of accessories/food/blades/treats/clothes/weapons/weapon chips/... have on your characters and party. The only interesting character comes at the end, and he's worth a whole star as his dialogue, acting and story are one of my favorites in gaming to date (I don't want to spoil the surprise). I did like that the rare blades had stories and quests, mercinary missions were awesome, the graphics (when they aren't highlighting the ladies' overdone anatomy), some music was good and for some reason I really enjoyed fishing. Fighting started off WAY too slowly and felt like a slog. The change in chain attacks was pretty neat but was also a bit too slow even with upgrades, and effects of course didn't work on top tier boss which felt cheap. So, why did I pay all the way through? I loved the first in the series and wanted to find something more redeeming about 2, and it was better at the end, except for the very end and how the 4 main characters end up (extremely sophomoric writing yet again), and in the end, I'm glad I played it because there are some elements of gallery's and story that feed into 3 (my favorite in the series).

This game is amazing and you can tell the developers took their time with this one.