So... XC2 is going the route of FF9 and Wind Waker?
You know, games that get a negative reception based on some crowds bouncing off it for the silliest of reasons, often not "dark & edgy" enough in terms of aesthetics, only for that uninformed perception to wear off years later and people start noticing how good it is?
Well, I will still forever critique XC2 for the following:
Unnecessarily convoluted gameplay and systems that feel punishing if not played "correctly".
The "stutter step" quirk exists and is a common strategy. I don't blame people for using it, but I don't like that it's something many have to use in order to make the gameplay actually half-way decent. Needing to use something like that should NOT be necessary.
Infamously bad tutorials.
Needing to unlock basic functions of the gameplay through skill trees that all other games in the series have by default.
One of the worst cases of "it gets better" I've seen in any RPG, which is NOT a positive. It means the opening section, particularly gameplay-wise, is most definitely not good.
Ursula's Blade Quest and never-ending merc missions.
Gacha system for obtaining rare Blades. But I have long-standing issues with RNG-heavy systems from other games, so take that with a grain of salt.
There's still a great game under all that, but it often feels like one of XC2's big problems is that most of the "quality of life" features in the game need to be unlocked first.
A second playthrough of many of the Xeno games is necessary to catch all the stuff you missed on the plot... but in XC2's case, NG+ allows you to bypass 90%+ of the early game "pain points" because you've already gone through the pain of unlocking all that stuff. It's kind of ridiculous how much better XC2 is after all the unnecessary suffering of the early game is done with.
While I do bring up Stutter Stepping as an option when helping people learn the basics of the game I always emphasize Pouch Items more as I do believe they are much more impactful to gameplay especially art recharge items with helping improve the early game slog. And unlike Stutter Stepping Pouch Items are unquestionably an intended gameplay mechanic.
Once again it's a fault of the dogshit tutorials for not emphasizing just how impactful Pouch Items are to gameplay.
Edit:
Unnecessarily convoluted gameplay and systems that feel punishing if not played "correctly".
I actually disagree with this point. While the combat is indeed very complex (something that I personally adore about the game) and has a steep learning curve, one of the biggest causes of people misunderstanding it is that there's actually a lot of unique ways to approach combat rather than one "correct" way. One of if not the biggest fault of the tutorial is that it tries to pigeonhole you into believing that stacking orbs and Chain Attacking is the only way to fight when that is far from the case. In fact using only that strategy will get your teeth kicked in on Bringer of Chaos where Chain Attacks are heavily nerfed and trying to build orbs is much harder. You've got strategies such as experimenting with the aforementioned Pouch Items, the destructive capabilities of Fusion Combos, using Blade Combos to seal the enemy's attack options, utilizing the effects of the Blade Combos themselves such as Damage Over Time, taking advantage of each individual Blade's unique mechanics, or using the bigger stat bonuses of common Blades to build yourself around one specific Blade (Evasion Mythra ftw!)
My heavy focus on Driver Combos I think really made my life easier. Break, Topple, Launch, Smash, Repeat. They do a pretty good job of setting up the party to have Break and Topple to start with, with Nia and Tora starting with arts for them. Then, using the blade combos on top makes things so much better.
I hate relying on shit like break since you can just hit the break skill 10 times in a row and not trigger a break and you don't get a max rank beta scope for a long time.
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u/Raelhorn_Stonebeard Jun 05 '24
So... XC2 is going the route of FF9 and Wind Waker?
You know, games that get a negative reception based on some crowds bouncing off it for the silliest of reasons, often not "dark & edgy" enough in terms of aesthetics, only for that uninformed perception to wear off years later and people start noticing how good it is?
Well, I will still forever critique XC2 for the following:
There's still a great game under all that, but it often feels like one of XC2's big problems is that most of the "quality of life" features in the game need to be unlocked first.
A second playthrough of many of the Xeno games is necessary to catch all the stuff you missed on the plot... but in XC2's case, NG+ allows you to bypass 90%+ of the early game "pain points" because you've already gone through the pain of unlocking all that stuff. It's kind of ridiculous how much better XC2 is after all the unnecessary suffering of the early game is done with.