Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a Disappointment | Part 2

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Thanks for Watching! I appreciate everyone making through to the end of the video before commenting :) Leave a comment if you agree or disagree! I'm just one person, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority of people who played it. But if you REALLY want me to see what you have to say, you're gonna have to follow me on Twitter and yell at me on there: twitter.com/CptAstro (I only get notifications from followers btw so I won't see if you don't follow me) Have a great week, everyone!!

[@convera8192]

mk

[@Quarmacy]

Idk, mangos

[@PleasedontlookatmycontentIbegy]

Ironically people who like xenoblade 2 think their in the minority

[@internetguy7319]

@@PleasedontlookatmycontentIbegy "tHiS mIgHt Be CoNtRoVeRsIaL bUt I aCtUaLlY lIkE 2 mOrE tHaN 1" they say to a guy saying they dislike 2 and like 1, as they proceed to get blasted in the comments

[@saltwyn]

idk banana

[@wJermell0]

Expanding on what you said about starting Rex with a blade I'd have done a tutorial salvage mission and had Rex get a core crystal then. That way you can introduce players to the bare basics of combat, show how much stronger you get with a blade, and maybe give a fight vs like 5 of those crabs to show how much stronger you are with a blade. Then when Torna kills Rex they go "hey this was a half decent blade, let's use it, Akhos still has a spare slot" so you can fight that same blade and show how unstable the life of a blade is and how they can be killing their best friends in a week because they just don't remember.

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Oooh I really like this idea too!

[@wJermell0]

@@CaptainAstronaut Right?! This game was like 2 drafts away from being just as good if not better than XB1. And to it's credit this does have a more fun post game to just screw around in but...it could have been more

[@absol_lute_zero9083]

Fuck, this idea is amazing. It could even be used well as characterization moment for Ahkos or some villai. They feel nothing about sacrificing that blade to save their own skin to escape or something along those lines, further showing that villain's depravity or callousness.

[@wJermell0]

@@absol_lute_zero9083 mmmm that doesn't fit with any of the members of Torna we've seen so far except Malos. All of them were visibly upset when their blades got toasted.

[@VGF80]

@@wJermell0 But they act like they forgot about them anyways.

[@somasora7]

Whether people love, hate or are neutral to XC2, Morag being dope is the common denominator

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I would absolutely play a spinoff where you just play as Morag doing Special Inquisitor stuff

[@spyshark_5002]

@@CaptainAstronaut Literally everyone would like that

[@elbert0p1kachu]

Actually some people think Morag is kind of flat because her growth kinda ended as soon as Niall relieved her of her SI duties.

[@Skallva]

@@elbert0p1kachu Even though her character is pretty underdeveloped, she's still the coolest part of the cast.

[@justaguy3983]

If we ever got a Morag spinoff let me take off the god dang hat.

[@Wyterra]

"Fire Emblem: Heroes, a game I play every day but do not like." yeah sounds like gacha players in a nutshell

[@LordlyWeeb]

The bad ones

[@ted2393]

A lot of this video I disagreed with, but this line was spot on

[@TazTheYellow]

I dropped Heroes entirely some years back. Each time I look back, I do not regret my choice.

[@fattytan1377]

I still play it. I just like to look at character portraits. Other wise it's just my time waster because fuck waiting around in a small room with nothing to do.

[@Skallva]

@@LordlyWeeb So all of them

[@excalibur2772]

Rex not finding a single blade crystal BEFORE the game starts while diving like he does the whole game makes no sense.

[@nepnep615]

and I believe you can actually get core crystals from salvaging. Maybe he just never tried due to the risk though.

[@excalibur2772]

@@nepnep615 He apparently didn't know about the risk until we first see it fail in game

[@Jake-zp3lz]

I know I’m 2 years late here but, he probably did find a bunch of core crystals while salvaging. That being said, it’s established Rex really does not like war, and liked his life as a salvager for the most part. There’s really no reason that he would have resonated with a core crystal until he was given a chance with the Aegis to not only get a second chance at life, but to achieve his dream of getting to Elysium.

[@Limit5482]

The one thing that is apparent is the game has got more holes then Swiss 🧀. I ain’t gonna miss this game

[@VaskoGames]

I don't have a gacha problem, not at all, what are you talking about

[@CaptainAstronaut]

If Car Quest was a Gacha Game w/ waifus, you'd be too busy and forget to eat

[@legendarydragon7097]

You just heavily enjoy pulling every five seconds. No addiction at all.

[@ThongNguyen-ek2nz]

@@CaptainAstronaut I actually disagree with you on this because you can pull blade every time you want. I actually pull out my favorite blades while on the bus idk what you say you forgot to eat lol but I think you put way too much time to pull waifus. Also there is no addiction at all when can easily set up 5 min to get 99 legendary cores without paying a single dime of money like other gacha games required you to grind ton of times and money for your favorite blades

[@shekira3463]

People make seggz videos it’s gross

[@thenotsoamazinggracetnsag3463]

Dont let this guy find out about casinos

[@meisunebernadetta9868]

"I think that enemy got *THE POINT"*

[@PulseAnimations878]

"I think that enemy Saw my hat"

[@lpf2049]

“King Dragon sends his regards.”

[@hexospikez741]

"I like your attitude!"

[@jedisalsohere]

"You'll never save Prince Horace"

[@jamesacosta2535]

I didn’t know Tetsuya Nomura created some of the characters for this game. I also 100% agree that when his designs are the most normal looking, something went wrong.

[@kingneo6736]

I don't know why the Blades not looking "normal" is a problem. If we're gonna summon what are basically stands why would they all just be regular people with weapons. Plus saying all of the blades designs are bad is a honestly horrible take imo

[@MrToonlink53]

@@kingneo6736 This. Like I agree there are some bad ones in there but I feel there are a lot more good than bad.

[@jamesacosta2535]

I am by no means saying they are bad. I personally don’t like their designs, but they are not bad. My stance on nomura’s over the top designs looking tame in comparison to the other characters in this game is more of me finding it funny than disrespect. In that way, I admit “wrong” may not have been the correct word choice.

[@cypher838]

@@kingneo6736 Um no. It is actually valid to say most of the blades have shitty designs

[@palladiamorsdeus]

@@cypher838 This. Like 90% of the blades have AWFUL designs.

[@TheExFatal]

I cannot believe that you called a stupid gacha system in Tears of the Kingdom, 2 years before release

[@beanmachine5161]

26:42 HOLY SHIT HE KNEW

[@gerarquiaFM]

Xd

[@angeldude101]

About level grinding, levels in Xenoblade 2 are honestly pretty meaningless. Being a few levels above the enemy makes them pretty much just as hard as if you're a few levels below. It's all the other systems in the game that provide massive damage multipliers that abilities that actually make the fights easier. To be clear about how meaningless levels are, the highest level superboss in the game at level 130 is also the easiest. The hardest, by comparison, is only level 100, and you wouldn't guess that he's so infuriating if you looked only at levels.

[@bananer354]

This is pretty much the case, though early on levels are a bit more important since you’re missing game mechanics and other ways to augment your stats.

[@thekingofspeed8960]

*Uses True Hazy Moon*

[@FicherWolf]

If you do side quests or finish with fusion combos or chain attacks you don't even need to grind lol

[@patrickshaw411]

hence most of my trouble with the game's difficulty, They don't teach you the other junk

[@Wyterra]

"I think Xenoblade 2 has the best overall soundtrack of all three Xenoblade games" Me, a Xenoblade X enjoyer: HERESY

[@obamaorb7426]

Xenoblade X enjoyers unite

[@metamayto]

WE'RE STUCK ON A DIFFERENT PLANET

[@drakenstarcross1347]

that song that plays when your flying on the mechs AND "stuck on a different planet want to talk.

[@obamaorb7426]

@@drakenstarcross1347 Aight the skell flight theme is a good song but can get annoying when it's all you hear (I wish it was just the regular area theme then switched to the flight theme at a certain altitude). Also black tar for me is one of those songs thats shit when you first listen, but then when you hear it a few times it's pretty good (kinda like the new Attack on Titan opening). Only truly bad song in the game imo is the NLA night theme, I kinda like the day one despite peoples opinions of it

[@drakenstarcross1347]

@@obamaorb7426 nice to hear someone else opinions about it! I personally just adore the "over the rainbows" shell flight theme

[@pablomonsalve3911]

The similarity between Torna and Tora is not present in Japanese, which is the script that the writers oversee. This similarity was the translators' doing (In the Japanese version, Torna is "Ira" instead, but since that was a real terrorist group in Ireland, when it was translated to the West it was changed. The reason for "Ira" is not because the writers wanted to draw parallels with the Terrorists, but because the titans in the Japanese versions are named after the 7 deadly sins in Latin, and "Ira" means "anger" in Latin, Uraya in the Japanese version is "Envidia" which means jealousy)

[@jakedaughrity-johnson1451]

Wait, really? Huh...

[@lucasdellamaggiore]

Neat, anger and jealousy are also ira and envidia in spanish

[@carlosdominguez9360]

@@lucasdellamaggiore wow is almost like spanish is a language derived from latin…

[@lucasdellamaggiore]

@@carlosdominguez9360 No need to be a smartass

[@harlekingnapmaster3986]

"Don't look up what they originally said" *opens Google*

[@aegisScale]

Oh god how bad was it

[@Rocky-yw1zo]

I couldn’t find it personally (prolly says something like ara ara)

[@harlekingnapmaster3986]

@@aegisScale Kinda like awakening Poppi

[@aegisScale]

@@harlekingnapmaster3986 oh no . . .

[@TheNorilla]

In the Japanese version she has dialog with a "bark" at the end of her sentences. From my understanding, she's also suppose to sound more innocent while she's talking in dog mode. The idea was probably to make her sound cute, but it really doesn't translate well to English and probably couldn't localize the dialog in a way to give equal meaning to English speakers and just had her making dog sounds instead.

[@stealthmaster96]

This is a great video and I agree with every point you made. Xenoblade 2 truly is a masterpiece. You are nitpicking and biased. I win bye bye.

[@gg_novastar8492]

I like this comment more than the entirety of the video

[@reedmateus2076]

I feel like this is arguments in general lmao

[@fruitxyikes260]

I dont understand if your joking or not- but you made a dunkey reference so its probably a joke

[@Wackaz]

Sorry dude, Xenoblade 2 sucks lmao.

[@stealthmaster96]

@@fruitxyikes260 "I dont understand if you're joking or not" Yes

[@HeroponMan]

One thing I'd point out about the cutscenes in Xenoblade 2: it's a bit jarring how many of them are not fully rendered. Basically, that means that an impressive majority of them simply do not have unique animations. In Xenoblade 1, a good chunk were fully animated, which made them feel alive, even during moments that were more personal than plot-important. In Xenoblade 2, the few fully animated cutscenes that exist are beautiful and great, but many of the ones that aren't feel out of place, or have a weird pseudo-mix of unique animations and default ones. It's off-putting, I didn't like that. It's also weird that despite having a surplus of cutscenes, there is a sizable amount of instances where characters (for the main story) interject with text bubbles, sometimes fully voiced, sometimes not. All of this hammers home the fact that, yes, this game was very obviously and unfortunately rushed.

[@HeroponMan]

If there were simply more bananas in this game, I might have liked it more..

[@baked7423]

by unique animations /full rendered do you mean the cutscenes are not fully animated (like when shit goes down)? cause if so I would say xc1 had worse ones where characters would slide and be still when talking. The running as well in xc1 look weird and DE makes it even more clear where the characters would run but it would seem slow. Xc2 had a better transition between the fully animated ones and ones that are not where xc1 its clear as day when they do transition because 1. the text boxes are different and 2. characters just stop moving.

[@doddynuryanto3800]

if the game rushed it would be like cyberbug2077

[@ianp5367]

You are reaching so hard to give XC1 points you're breaking your back. XC1s cutscenes aside from a handful are largely generic, and even the full animated cutscenes have little to no choreography in them. XC2s are miles better, yes there's stilted generic scenes here and there, but XC1 had them in spades as well.

[@HeroponMan]

@@ianp5367 Ian

[@Salaaaad]

The female characters design are part of the plot duh!

[@baked7423]

But they actually have intent which is the funny part.

[@aSquidMin]

Salaad your sarcasm lmao

[@mariojetsluigi11]

The fact that they say blades are the physical representation of the driver yet someone like morag can pull dahlia

[@kana_emiya]

@@mariojetsluigi11 Yeah no that's not how it works A rare blade's appearance is set with the influence of the first driver it bonds to after collecting enough data from its environment

[@jerm-gv9rv]

@@mariojetsluigi11 yeah pretty much what Gavin said, it’s the reason Wulfric has a lot of animalistic tendencies and the fact that he can communicate with animals no matter which party member you bond him too

[@painoman5083]

Even if people dislike this game, at least there's two things that we can all agree on: 1. The soundtrack is god-tier 2. Zeke is great

[@thekingofspeed8960]

The zekeator will always be god-tier

[@ametrine7462]

Even if people dislike this game I think we can agree on: The game is still great. :D

[@painoman5083]

@@ametrine7462 I like this idea

[@wozthescott2804]

I dislike it and I agree with those two points

[@Player-jh4ko]

@@ametrine7462 That doesn't make sense lol.

[@dugtrioramen]

Imagine both azurda and Rex's "first blade" died in chapter 1, and both Pyra and Rex had different feelings of guilt for their death. Rex would feel guilty cuz of how reckless he was taking the job. Pyra would feel guilty cuz they died trying to protect her, so now she has to fill in the hole in Rex's life that their deaths left behind.

[@Khyon521]

I’m just waiting for the “JOIN MEEEEE” Moment

[@beasoup7708]

37:07 Oh my god How did they know I'm certain this guy's got an actual Monado giving them visions

[@zechariahcrosby4140]

Plot twist- monolith soft turned to him for advice on making xenoblade 3

[@TempoKong]

It's not even as visionnary as at 26:39

[@vejymonsta3006]

Finally someone reflects my feelings of this game. After Xenoblade 1 and X this was like playing a totally different franchise. The character designs are like a who's who of deviant art creations.

[@skylandersfan6954]

The story and characters wre written in a very similar way to 1 though? And the gameplay is similar too

[@LocalAnonOnTheInternet]

​@@skylandersfan6954 Aside the title and the basic idea of how combat flows are all that's similar between XC1 and XC2, the rest is barely similar in writing.

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@LocalAnonOnTheInternet Elaborate then

[@tonyknighton4019]

IKR??? Like WTF???

[@created3612]

For me my biggest issue was the exploration and gameplay. I agree with pretty much all your points, but most of your points didn’t affect me as much as it did for you. 1. I hate how disconnected each world is, running feels slow, and you can pretty much see the entire world if you stand somewhere good. It takes away the feeling of going into the unknown because at this point you understand that the titan has already been colonized. It is my biggest letdown from the previous xenoblades ESPECIALLY given that 1 and X are my favorites games of all time. 2. I dislike the gacha as well, and I prefer XC1’s and XCX’s combat compared to 2. 3. Sexualization. I don’t have to say much else, we all know what’s going on.

[@anthonychessar7179]

While I DO NOT agree with this video at all. You're at least doing it in a more "respectful" way. I would MUCH rather be forced to sit through your videos on why Xenoblade 2 apparently sucks(from your perspective) then anyone else's. ESPECIALLY anything to do with this game and the channel BeatEmUps(man makes a video on why he refuses to review it, then goes mocking the game in every other video to then finally give it a 2nd chance years later only to completely half-ass it by not even pretending to care.) Yeah, I'll watch the guy who ACTUALLY PUTS IN EFFORT please.

[@ametrine7462]

I skipped to one part of BeatEmUps’s “review” and he complained that he was dying even though he wasn’t going for the health potions lmao.

[@sultan_3864]

Idk if this is the guy that respects the game if he complains about literally the entire game and story. Like what’s the point of having a story in the game

[@sultan_3864]

And also the graphs in this video is so irrelevant. Doesn’t have a scale to them at this point. Even in the “anime” graph that he pulls

[@CurlyFries723]

@@ametrine7462 He somehow got 53 hours of gameplay but only made it to the titan battleship, like ??????? how tf does he do that. That's like 10 hours of gameplay+sidequests max

[@ametrine7462]

Alex Christie mans must’ve left his switch on lmao. 53 hours was when I got to Morytha I think lmao.

[@Carraway-]

Afraid to ask, but what was poppi originally saying in Japanese when she barked?

[@xcelentei]

Honestly it's not that big of a change. She still adds dog noises to her voice but she says cutesy maid shit which implies it's a pet-play mode rather than a dog park mode.

[@elbert0p1kachu]

A liberal translation would be "HeOwO Masterpon. Woof you like 2 gOwO to the bark with me, UwU?"

[@Carraway-]

Oh, so the changes were actively better then. Ok.

[@curesaul5749]

@@xcelentei ugh why did I click on the replies.

[@elbert0p1kachu]

@@curesaul5749 I... I'm sorry you have to see what I wrote :(

[@crystallemming6027]

What do you have against raisins? Is it the sun or the grapes? Because those're all the ingredients

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I can't stand the taste, and I've been catfished by too many oatmeal raisin cookies thinking they were chocolate chip

[@VGF80]

Rasians are a little bit chewie, they don't have that crunchy taste to it.

[@crystallemming6027]

@@CaptainAstronaut I can't eat trail mix because of the almonds. They're miniature peach pits that aren't even edible and they suck all the moisture out of my mouth

[@InfiniteSkiegh]

@@crystallemming6027 At least almonds don't make you trip balls when you eat them...never Crack a peach pit open. It's not worth it...

[@crystallemming6027]

Noted... have you tried this?

[@scrapyarddragon]

>shitting on kos-mos, a legacy character from xenosaga, in the same bucket as the new rare blades for what purpose? Like fine its fair to trash them at large but like...ah who am I kidding she was still waifu bait back on the ps2

[@nomight273]

ya but she is a better character then majority of the xeno 1 cast lol

[@srfrancium9728]

I knew she looked familiar but I still wouldn't have been surprised

[@cypher838]

@@nomight273 nah. Xenoblade 1's cast was Hella great.

[@palladiamorsdeus]

@@nomight273 I think you meant to say worse than most of the rest of the cast.

[@justice8718]

@@nomight273 Who isn't?

[@nathanrailsback9667]

"What if Zelda had a stupid gacha game system that was integral to all the other systems?" They did that for the Minish Cap. And to a lesser extent, the Oracle games. It did indeed suck. Especially because it was that combined with "socialization bonuses", i.e. "What do you mean everyone doesn't live in Tokyo?" That's bananas.

[@Lionfrog13]

This man predicted zonai devices, wild

[@keldeo05]

The combat in this game is kinda hard to grasp and the tutorials are so bad that everytime I go back to play it I take at least 30 minutes to remember the mechanics

[@Tvhurdghit4fhi6rr]

The combat mechanics that you actually need to know are pretty simple, I got by for ages only paying attention to the basics

[@keldeo05]

@@Tvhurdghit4fhi6rr Kind off, I've yet to finish it but everytime I open the game I have to remember how to do a lot of the combos since I only started doing sidequest after I got the last party member

[@Tvhurdghit4fhi6rr]

@@keldeo05 I can understand that it's quite complicated but I dont have trouble remembering, maybe I just play it too much

[@KanoPX]

Very funny he made an oroboros joke when that’s the entire premise of XC3 from what we can tell so far loll

[@georgehayward532]

One thing i think you missed is how the system showing we're you have to go is awful how was I supposed to know that you had to walk around on a specific peice of ice when it gives no context clues to it I don't even think that walking on ice to break it was a feature established before the omega fetter quest

[@luke3810]

Oh my god lol I remember being stuck on this part for so long 😂

[@NebulaAlterna]

Considering I’m a kingdom hearts fan, the “bad” voice acting doesn’t phase me. It adds to the experience lol

[@thekingofspeed8960]

The way I think of it is that you have to put up with all the shit moments like “Join Meeeee” or “AAAAAAAAAIYYAH” For treasuring moments like “INDEED!” or “Don’t get cocky... YOU LITTLE SHIT”

[@jerm-gv9rv]

@@thekingofspeed8960 who said indeed lol

[@thekingofspeed8960]

@@jerm-gv9rv Malos chapter 7. Probably one of my favorite lines from the game lmao

[@elbert0p1kachu]

Whether or not we like the English dub, I think we can all agree that Thomas the tank engine 80% carried the whole English dub experience

[@thekingofspeed8960]

@@elbert0p1kachu kzbin.info/www/bejne/ima2ZaVopZ6raZY

[@SirBanana1992]

Banana. Also I'm kind of in a weird position where I like this game overall but yet somehow agree with the majority of this video. How does that even work, fuck do I know I'm not a psychologist or maybe I'm more of a masochist than I thought. In general, I like the story of the game (but still dislike the pacing and random mood interruptions). Soundtrack is a masterpiece but I still prefer XCX's of the 3. Gameplay had its good moments as long as you didn't notice the post-game staring at you like some creepy trenchcoat drugged up hobo (god knows I want absolutely nothing to do with any min-maxing or completion in this game, it's the absolute worst). But the one part that really does me in in this video is really the ludonarrative dissonance because even in my favorite series of all time, Legend of Heroes, I see it creeping in more and more. In one of the latest games, Trails of Cold Steel 3, the game was littered full of those "win in battle, lose in cutscenes" moments that constantly infuriated me despite winning the fights so easily I barely took any damage because the game systems are so broken and abusable. And then it's made even worse when in cutscenes we get saved by other characters jumping in which for all intents and purposes we know full well can't handle the threat either. If you're gonna hype up 2 villains to be these god-like beings that can rip me apart with the snap of a finger maybe don't have Little Timmy who hasn't finished his training yet swoop in and "save the day". If I couldn't handle it, they sure couldn't either dammit!

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I mentioned it in Part 1, but it's because this game is like Trail Mix. There's a lot of different components in this game, and while some for some people (like me), some of the components are Raisins and ruin the whole experience, other people don't mind the raisins so much and can enjoy the experience as a whole Also I've meaning to play the Trails of Cold Steel games, I've heard they're pretty good.

[@SirBanana1992]

@@CaptainAstronaut it's definitely good despite what I said. But you'll get A LOT of cutscene and dialogue for sure. This series is all about that. And in case you didn't know, the series actually starts with Trails in the Sky, Cold Steel is the 3rd story arc in a continuous story. Ain't a bad thing to start with Cold Steel per say but the context will be missing from some references and is more modernised and easier for some people to get started on the series as opposed to Trails in the Sky which is much more dated slower paced due to being essentially a 40-60 hour prologue. Cold Steel 3 and beyond though expects the players to have played every single previous entry to understand everything that's going on.

[@Paradox1012]

It's like the animated clone wars series. The first 2 seasons suck and then the story gets good, and then theres that one part in season 5 that's like the worst part and then it ends with a really cool connection to the other thing that sets up really cool story moments in future media.

[@Xarr23]

@27:00 LMAO I come from the future. Zelda Tears of the Kingdom HAS a gachapon mechanic. IDK how you predicted this, but I personally like it(?). It's not an essential part of the game but if you want parts to make vehicles just go to a gachapon machine and get parts. idk how to feel about that, but I'm realizing I like randomizers in games (as long as it doesn't constrict you too much and you can do something with the unwanted things).

[@obamaorb7426]

I actually really like your idea for a rewrite of the start starting Rex off as a driver and him losing his original blade to Torna

[@LordlyWeeb]

That defeats Rex's entire character. He's supposed to not know how to be a driver and how all of that works. He's supposed to be a fish out of water.

[@obamaorb7426]

@@LordlyWeeb I can see what you mean, but at the same retrospectively I think I prefer this way, nothing that can't be rewritten around and also serves as a great intro to blades and their memories. Also to be fair, does Rex ever actually develop from the beginning of the game? He's still the same impulsive, reckless, immature character at the end of the game who only even follows Mythra's wishes at the end because his friends are there trying to convince him for like 10 minutes, and he didn't really have a choice anyway. Tbh I think the game would benefit from having a rewritten main character because I didn't care for Rex at all, he's just Sora if Sora never developed, was more annoying and had an even more rediculous design. I get that's probably just my own opinion and that the writers of the game are a lot better at it than I am, but that's how I see it.

[@LordlyWeeb]

@@obamaorb7426 He absolutely changes. He specifically learns to not be reckless. Every time he gets his ass kicked in the first half of the game someone teaches him a lesson on how to be a better driver, and by the 2nd half, he's taken it to heart and does better. The ending with him realizing he has to leave Pyra and Mythra to escape the world tree is another highlight of his growth in maturity.

[@obamaorb7426]

@@LordlyWeeb Sure at the end he's a little better actually budging and realising he has to escape after some convincing, but that's the extent of it. For the entire game until the visions in Elysium he learns nothing about being a driver and is just given more power anyway. Prime example, he literally watched Vandam die for him and he just runs in, dooming himself and all of his friends there as well if Mythra didn't bail him out. When he loses to Jin in Tantal he locks himself away for days and then tries to go home before the rest of the crew calls him a dumbass and has to convince him to stay. Literally all he does to gain more power is watch his friend die and run to his own death (unlocking Mythra) and accepts the aegis for who she is (unlocking the 3rd sword). There isn't a moment in the game until Elysium that he actually reflects on his past mistakes and learns something from it

[@LordlyWeeb]

@@obamaorb7426 Mythra literally berates Rex for rushing in after Vandam dies. I don't see how you can say he doesn't learn when he goes from getting his ass kicked, even after he has Mythra, to not getting his ass kicked. He gets more power because the Aegis is the strongest blade, and he learns how to bring out that power after repeatedly getting his shit kicked in and getting better bit by bit. Jin, Vandam, Mythra, Nia, and I think even Malos all teach him throughout the game how to not be a shit driver.

[@cyndawu1940]

32:56 Ok I was laughing so hard with this part of the video because it's so true. The battle dialougue in this game is so chaotic. I don't mind hearing the same battle dialougue, like in Xenoblade 1, but I can barely keep it with any lines in Xenoblade 2. Imagine having the coolest boss theme music and the battle dialougue made the battle feel dumber. I'm fine with the gatcha system, I get it, rare blades are OP and normal blades are weak. But the main story is already pretty easy. People who choose to use normal blades can make the game feel harder, kinda like in Pokemon, some Pokemon are really strong and some are actually really bad. I actually enjoyed using the normal blades, but I do wish you can make them stronger. A big problem with normal blades is that I keep geeting elements or weapon types I don't want. At one point, I keep getting Fire element weapons, 2 of my team members have Fire type. Anyway, I really enjoy your crtique on the game. I love Xenoblade 2 but I know damm fucking well I cannot quite recommend this to anyone cuz how weird the anime is. banana

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Thanks for watching! I totally agree that the battle music is awesome, but you can't hear it over the voices. I like it when battles feel a little bit chaotic, like an actual fight would, but in this game it was just too much I think the gacha game system could have worked better with a little more polish, but my general policy is gacha game = not good (I say, as I play Fire Emblem Heroes every day haha) I'm glad that there were people who liked the game though. It's an odd one for sure haha

[@100organicfreshmemes5]

I don't think intentionally making the game harder if you want really excuses the gacha system at all. Even ignoring the possibility of difficulty options, you could also purposely skip as many battles as possible if you wanted to be under-levelled and under-equipped in order to make the game harder.

[@georgelongcoal1117]

Normal blades AREN'T weak tho

[@gabrielevaccaro2453]

@@georgelongcoal1117 when this game gets a remaster in 2027 Kiki will be a rare blade(and they will fix the ing dub,and hopefully Rex)

[@georgelongcoal1117]

@@gabrielevaccaro2453 But I like the boyooo And yes, kiki rare blade.

[@Wackaz]

Still waiting for the next episode 3 years later 😭

[@VGF80]

He may have forgotten but the viewers don't

[@Vexal50]

about the blade balance....I actually find that common blades, particularly the 4* ones, tend to be more useful than a large majority of the non-story-given rare blades, especially if we omit any of the blades locked behind the expansion pass

[@amrox9656]

Watching XC2 fans trying to defend the game in the comments of videos where it's criticised is one of my favourite hobbies, thanks for this goldmine

[@skylandersfan6954]

Criticism such as?

[@ditulliodj]

@@skylandersfan6954You need to understand that XCX is the game for audults to play an have a fun Properly, an this game is like terrible anime bad adpted. even 3 is worse also, with still a different gameplay style that wasnt ba at all. but is worse. so yes. Xcx 1 an X are the real games. And you need acept this. an be chill and stay as kid playing your ki gacha game ok? thats it that him is speaking this video. You just need to acept this and go play you xc2

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@ditulliodj I didnt even mention X

[@RapDog62]

I love this game and I love these videos. Entertaining constructive criticism all around. idk bananas

[@harryw3310]

This was my first xeno game and there were some things I liked and some I didn't. The soundtrack was really stunning, lots of tracks I adored. Only thing I wasn't huge on was the gacha aspects the game had. The game itself I enjoyed and sank many hours into, idk I'm just not huge on gacha mechanics

[@monke12354]

Tbh, I think the only reason these videos have the like/dislike ratio they do is because the majority of the fan base started with this game, and your brutal honesty is probably too rough on most for them to consider your criticisms rather than immediately defend the game they loved.

[@skylandersfan6954]

Or he just made bad points

[@gerarquiaFM]

​@@skylandersfan6954nah

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@gerarquiaFM Yah

[@nitropenguinz]

I gifted my friend Xenoblade 2 several years back and he said he didn't like it and I always wondered why. It's very interesting to see things from a writer's perspective, really enlightening. It's a shame too this game had a lot of potential and hype, but ended up being really disappointing if you think about it for more than two seconds.

[@aaronwolf6823]

When I got my switch for smash ultimate my parents insisted that I buy another game since smash wasn't out yet. I was going to buy xenoblade 2 since I love the original. But it was sold out so I just didn't buy anything till smash come out. I watched a let's play after so I could at least see the story and characters. And I am happy it was sold out.

[@skylandersfan6954]

Nah, Xenoblade 2 gets better the more you think about it. Its worse at a surface level when you don't understand the nuances of the character writing

[@nitropenguinz]

@@skylandersfan6954 I don't disagree, but if the surface level presentation isn't good and they never get to the good stuff then that's a problem no?

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@nitropenguinz Well, I never said the surface level presentation was bad, just said it was better when you look into it which goes for XB1 as well

[@fikaieldjou]

@@skylandersfan6954 the nuance of character writing being rex not growing, morag not being a character, zeke having an issue in a cutscene and forgets about it in the next, nia letting vandham die, tora not being a character the only good character in the game is Amalthuslmao

[@XelchanTheBrave]

Where is part 3 :|

[@peterandersen3114]

The gacha joke for Botw 2 is actually a thing. I am dying

[@pamtheman5748]

One of the biggest gripes I have for the designs has to be Percival simply for his name. I know this sounds petty but they could have named him after any well known samurai of the edo period instead of after one of the knights of the round table.

[@pablomonsalve3911]

It is known that this game was rushed and understaffed due to Monolith Soft having been tasked with helping out in the development of the overworld of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, which came out a few months before Xeno 2, and the polishing of Splatoon 2 at the same time. Only 40 staff members of Monolith actually worked in the game, while the rest were asigned to several other Nintendo projects. On the same note, several aspects of the game were outsourced to third party coders and designers, particularly regarding enemy grunts. It has been known for some time now that the personal ambition of Takahashi, director of Monolith, has been to be able to go all out with a project entirely of Monolith without having to dedicate parts of the staff to other games not from the studio. The lastest occurrence of this was Animal Crossing new Horizons, which Monolith helped develop. Additionally, only marginal effort was put on Future Connected so as to not hinder the development of the new main project of Monolith So, when you say that the story looks like a first draft, it probably is, Astronaut, you hit the nail in the head. Xenoblade 1, by comparisson, received much more dedication, but even back then, part of Monolith staff was diverted to help with the development of The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. Here is the source: gamingbolt.com/xenoblade-chronicles-2-was-made-with-a-staff-of-only-40-developers-plus-outsourcers as.com/meristation/2019/03/29/noticias/1553860660_385313.html So let's hope Monolith gets the chance to flex their development power, full force, with their future projects

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Yeah I bet that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (or whatever game comes for Monolith Soft) is going to be incredible

[@mariojetsluigi11]

@@CaptainAstronaut especially since they’ve been working on this one for a long time which is what led to xenoblade x. It’s probably gonna be ambitious. It would be bananas

[@Wackaz]

Where is Part 3?

[@JoseDorda]

Okay here we go. -Yes having major battles with tutorials in the middle is very annoying. -If Rex was a driver from the start that would impact the narrative, he is supposed to be noob who becomes overly confident after getting the power of Aegis and that is what leads to many of his fuck ups later in the game. -Azurda has no value to the narrative besides revealing the location of Pneuma's blade later on, honestly would have mind if he died. -You are the first person that I heard who died to Brigid in Gormott. -There are actually 2 ways to obtain the information about Nia's execution, you can buy it from the informant or you can keep asking about it to everyone, the first time I beat the game I did not buy the info. -You really don't need to grind in this game, you have the bonus exp that you can use in inns and later you can use chain attack overkills to get a loads of exp from regular fights, finishing enemies with special combos and fusion combos also reward you more experience. -Oh there we go again with the "the game is full moment were you win the battle and loss the cutscene", the first example people use of this is the battle agaisnt Morag in Gormott, you do not "lose the cutscene" there, if anything what is show to the player is the party outsmarting her, defeating her with water tower and managing to escape. Agaisnt Vandham you end up losing the cutscene I give you that, but with Akhos that isn't the case again, all that Akhos manage to do is hurt Pyra before Vandham cancel Obronas power forcing Akhos to retreat, later agaisnt Jin in Tantal you never win the battle before the cutscene because like a lot of battles in XC, it will over as soon as his HP get below a certain point. I apologise for any typo I initially wrote this in a hurry using a cellphone set for another language.

[@ZigmundZag]

I disagree with the "lose the cutscene" comment. When you do the battle, you expect that when the hp drops the 0 then that means you won. But it means nothing when the post battle scene shows the enemy still standing and the rest of your party is pretty in much down for the count. It doesn't matter if you were at full HP when the battle ended; now the turntables and you're the one struggling to stay in the fight while the opponent is at full HP in the cutscene. I think the point the video was trying to make was that if an enemy is downed in battle, that means you won the fight. The argument that the protagonist "won" by outsmarting the opponent shouldn't have to happen. You shouldn't have to be clinging on to dear life while your enemy clearly has the upper hand after you put in all the work during the fight to have that NOT happen. RL example, you're in a championship boxing match with a heavyweight and you trained for years to win. You deliver the final KO punch. The bell dings, and then the ref goes over to the unconscious opponent and declares them the winner. And in the process, the ref donkey punches you into a coma. Then the judges discuss how the opponent was winning and finally decided that you only "barely" and "technically" won while your opponent goes into the next round of the championship bracket. I'm currently playing the game and this is the story for all the fights I've been in so far and I can't remember the last time I was so infuriated by the post scene of one of those battles. The fact that it happened every time really rusted my hinges. There are only two outcomes in this story: you lose in the battle and then you have to do it again, or you win the battle and you still are shown that you were losing that fight.

[@baked7423]

@@ZigmundZag Ludonarrative dissonance is the issue you are referring to as Cap Astro brings up, however it does not apply here. I personally did not feel annoyed at the difference in cutscene and gameplay. You are basing it on a subjective criteria that you feel infuriated by it. Sometimes the cutscene and gameplay is the same/the fight stops at half health or it will have you "lose" I guess after beating a boss. Even Cap Astro brings this up but for some reason never thinks as to why it is. There is a certain reason for it then the devs just being doing it randomly. Ludonarrative dissonance is the discrepancy between the narrative of gameplay and story. However, that is a simple way of looking at it and it is obvious when someone just applies it without doing further research such as in the vid. It can be used purposely by the dev to foster a sort of feeling or purpose as argued in recent years. Lets look at a few examples of where the game either lets you beat the boss and the cutscene followed reflects this or they stop you halfway. First the cutscene where rex badly loses to Jin, and the Mythra & pneuma awakening scenes. The intent there is to show that the characters aren’t strong enough to win. Rex cannot win agaisnt Malos and Akhos or Malos and Jin and so the game stops the fights because you can't win. Which is why Mythra or Pneuma have to awaken for the party to win and the cutscenes that follow reflect this. Jin is too strong for Rex to win against and Rex has to lose as it is a pivotal part of his character arc. Ones that let you beat the boss like Amalthus are because you are strong enough to win. Rex at that point has Pneuma plus the whole party to back him up. Now a few examples of the discrepancies. One is the malos fight and another is the Morag & brighid fight. The reason you are allowed to defeat the bosses is to give the impression that these guys are tough cookies. Malos is an Aegis and Jin is the strongest blade in Torna. If a noobie driver like Rex was to defeat them so quickly it would not be good writing. Same With morag and brighid as they are introduced as the most powerful in the empire. To have you beat them right after that would be underwhelming. It is not that the characters can't win. As @Jose Dorda says, you eventually out wit morag & Brighid and escape. Same with the Malos fight at the beginning. As Malos says, you get the slip on them. The ahkos fight intention is a bit different though. You are able to drive them away but the point was not to make Akhos and obrona look like fodder as later on they have the ability to cut the ether flow. If you beat them in the cutscene and got to the cutscene where vandham dies, you would be like "why did they not use it out earlier" or might feel this is pulling something out of their asses. It helps give the impression that they left because they didn't want to deal with fighting the party at the moment rather than he had to leave because he was beat and later used something he could have done earlier to win. The intention of letting Akhos hurt Pyra was also to lead into the conversation between vandham and rex about power and war. Also it was a tutorial of the chain attack which is big damage move so having the battle cut short and not let you use it fully would make the tutorials even worse than they already are.

[@MrAsh1100]

Azurda is still important as well. Revealing the blade location while being the oldest in the team. He's sort of a mentor figure so its fine.

[@baked7423]

@mrcristofer 2013 it’s not objective and not a shitty justification. Also that’s not an actual retort.

[@baked7423]

@mrcristofer 2013 what evidence or argumentation does it even present? all you said is it is objective and shitty nothing else lol.

[@xtecreborn]

27:00 Can we talk about how this video actually predicted the gacha machines in tears of the kingdom?

[@hlin834]

I love this game to bits but I have to agree with a lot of what you said. Also, the reason Pyra was able to fight Malos on the ship is because blades just get weaker when they're away from their drivers, also the reason why you can send blades on missions. They kinda explain this in combat with the affinity link. Brighid is said to be nearly on par with the aegis which is why she could fight without Morag.

[@baked7423]

>show not tell its the introduction to the world, a narration that serves as an introduction to the main character as well. Also this is literally xeno 1. cutscene for characters literally explaining their goals like the viewers is dumb at the end of the game. >rex being revived The point of that scene is to introduce us to Pyra and establish a goal, not to say this is how drivers and blades work. Also this scene was made to make sense of alvis waking up shulk and thats from xeno 1. Its literally a direct parallel. You complained about rex being whiny in part 1 and getting revived when thats literally what happened with shulk, not rex. >tutorials in main fights while I don’t necessarily disagree with this, this stems from a greater problem of the tutorials being not so great. I don’t see also how the two malos ones are bad. the first one like you said is the introduction but the second one is introducing Pneuma. What did you want to happen? Not say anything to the player? >Rex being a driver This does not make sense as rex is a salvager and not a driver. He has no need for a blade. This undermines him resonating with pyra. Also you complained about show not tell but here you are saying they should tell the viewer. You already learn about blades and drivers later on its just unnecessary exposition. >blades fighting I don’t understand what the problem is. Rex is a noobie driver so of course he is not able to fight well yet. Why are you mad about being confused in the introduction lol. Its just her fighting, who said Blades cannot fight when Jin and Malos are literally fighting themselves. >Azurda staying dead What does Azurda staying dead accomplish? A character should not be dead for no reason. You listed the reason why he stays alive. Also rex is being childish which is the point of his character. This is to show him not acting responsible which gets solved later. Why would they already develop Rex when him growing up is a crux of his arc. Having an example of something he needs to improve on is good. Haze also already serves that role along with the cutscene with Brighid and Pyra. We already learn Pyra is special with her reviving rex and later them sharing cores. >areas They are smaller like you said because its individual titan but honestly better. XC1 had way too much dead space which made the areas honestly feel like a slog. XCX of course would be bigger as the game’s main draw is the exploration. Just because its big doesn’t mean its good. Also wdym the areas don’t look good. Why dafuq would a war ridden titan or a dystopian city be colorful or something. The aesthetic of the areas fit perfectly well for what they are. >level grinding I thought this game did a better job than XC1. Xc1 had it where you had to be a certain level which is dumb. XC2 though had bonus exp which Idk if you used or not. Grinding a few levels should not be an issue. Also, it might not be the level but more so you not understanding the combat. Man, not doing too well in the beginning, almost like you haven’t learned everything yet. >tora being like torna beginning writing mistake? im honestly surprised you are talking about writing. This is just a nitpick. Your fault for being confused not the game’s. >blade summoning the gacha system is not inherently bad. Just that you need field skills so you have to summon a few blades (so field skills fault which I also hate) but you don’t have to summon a rare blade to beat the game. You make it seem like it’s a big deal. Also common blades are mostly useless? you basically admitted that you don’t understand the gameplay. Some common blades are better than the rare blades lol. They even have a unique skill that is very good. You can even get boosters and use them for merc missions/field skills. Its suppose to be an optional thing so if you are complaining about this then i don’t know what to say. Obviously being optional does not excuse it but you are the one putting yourself through it. >Character design Also not to say the Saito didn't want to make girls pretty, he also had a clear reason. This is what he had to say about Pyra and mythra's design, "When designing Pyra, we wanted her to be a protective presence for Rex, so we envisioned her as a flame with a passionately burning core. But at the same time, we also designed her to evoke a certain sense of incompleteness as a way of reflecting the existence of Pyra’s other form: Mythra. That’s one reason the glowing areas on her body are not horizontally symmetrical, and why we partially removed the back of her outfit and cloak." I don't see how you dont think their designs don't fit the characters. Ursula has beary because she is shy and needs something to hide behind, adenine is a book nerd, and corsette with the fireworks to represent her excitement. I like the diversity of the designs as it gives a flare to each character. If anything Nomura's designs don't look normal in context as they are vastly different from other ones. You saying morag is good because of her being fully clothed isnt a point. >Oversexualization Problem I had with your part 1. Possibly the worst section. You’re a guy, why the heck are you deciding that it is over sexualization of women. I agree that some designs may be over the top but we should not be deciding if its objectifying women. Thats just adding to the problem. idk if you know but Dahlia (the ice bunny) was designed by a woman. So a woman decided that they wanted a female to be like that and yet here you are deciding for women how they should look. There are also other women who like the designs for characters like Pyra and Mythra. Stop trying to be woke or be on a high ground. >Anime Yea the first four chapters are mostly comedic because they wanted to go that direction. Why are you surprised. How about stop comparing the games and look at it for its own thing. You looking at ass shots and stuff is not the game’s fault, thats your fault. You don’t need to like anime to like xc2 unless you let that get in the way. The game after chapter 4 starts to take itself seriously and stops these tropes when necessary. they only use them when they want to be light-hearted. >Battle dialogue Just disable it lol. This is a non-issue. A common issue with your criticisms is it is nitpicking and something that is irrelevant to the whole game. >Ludonarrative Dissonance This is a very abused and incorrectly used term. It would be ludonarrative dissonance if there was no intent in doing anything and just had the cutscene and gameplay be different. Its obvious you just saw the two being different and applied this term. However, it is incorrectly used here. As you said the game does sometimes match the game play and story by maybe having the fight stop at half hp. the intent there is to show that the characters aren’t strong enough to win i.e. mythra and Pneuma having to awaken and Jin using his full power. with the battles where they let you beat the enemy, the intent is different. With morag and brighid, they are introduced as the most powerful in the empire. The intention behind you beating them is to show they are tough cookies not that the characters can’t win, hence they have rex get the better of them right after. This is the same with the Malos fight where you are able to escape from them. you know maybe there was a reason for them sometimes letting you beat a boss and not just saying.

[@elbert0p1kachu]

Thanks. His first vid already fell flat because everything felt like a minor nitpick. His only good point there was "It's not bad voice acting, it's bad voice direction" then he lost me after he said something like "The British voice actors don't fit the anime hijinks happening on-screen"

[@connorp3764]

I wouldn't really call cutscenes a component and more like a common negativity that a lot of JRPGs fall into. Announcing it is common to JRPGs may be true, but it still doesn't change the fact that they can hinder gameplay.

[@baked7423]

@@connorp3764 I agree actually. It is just that he makes it sound like a xc2 problem and since it is a common component in JRPGs, I usually deal with it.

[@connorp3764]

@@baked7423 okey dokey, gotcha.

[@elliotmurray7463]

Dude I absolutely love this series. I remember thinking some of these stuff at the time back in 2017 and then seeing reviews gloss over them, then like hearing people who started with 2 but not playing the others pressing it to high hell it made me think I was just not getting it. Then back in 2020 after playing the remake I decided to play through all of it and still had those feelings so watching this and hearing your opinions really resonated with me thanks for making this series. I don’t like being negative and there are some good elements like the music but yeah the character design, plot and voice acting always made this hard to understand why a lot of people see it as the best in the series granted they may not of played the others. That anime example you used to describe its difference over the other games in the series was spot on like the second I heard that followed by people who also like that kind of anime I realised there is somewhat of a connection. Of course people can like what they want to it’s just really refreshing to hear from your viewpoint since a lot of it has been discourse in the community kind of like what happens with persona in a way with the similar narrative style but people preferring the setting and characters over others. Whilst I hate to play those kind of playground talks for some reason a lot of people discuss very passionately about that kind of stuff. It still wireds me out how some people will play a game if it has a gatcha system like to me that’s an derogatory term for gaming outside like the trophies in melee or the actually machines in shenmue if the core game is designed on that it’s somewhat flaws by nature. Sorry this comment was so long code:bananas thanks for this vid dude, awesome stuff.

[@zebrapowerlegal7429]

Still waiting for part 3 about this dumpster fire

[@MonadoBoyFlameRock]

Yes I finally beat the boss game: well yes but actually no me: WTF!? all that grinding.

[@knightsteyri9110]

I like how the subtitles are a completely different video.

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I don't know why I struggle so much with uploading the correct subtitles but here we are lol

[@JustJulyo]

I'm trying to remember what I actually loved about the game Everything you said is how I felt but not as passionate, just as well I guess that is the game but now thinking about it really isn't too tier as I initially thought. I mean if I'm watching a 40 minute analyze 3 years later explaining the game, something must've gone wrong in the game development

[@123christianac]

"something must've gone wrong in the game development" But the fact that you care enough about the game to watch a 40 minute analysis (or for one to be made) means they clearly did something right. Also, time is not a good indicator of content.

[@wozthescott2804]

@@123christianac the game sucks bro

[@viki7268]

@@123christianac ???

[@jerryborjon]

@@123christianac - What a cope comment

[@sydneydunaway5618]

God I hated this game too. The argument that most drives me up the wall is the "it gets better 20 hours in" people use to defend XC2. I work a full-time 9-5 job. I read books. I watch movies, plays, television, and, yes, enjoy video games. If you're not going to respect my time, I'm not going to waste it on 70 hours of fetishy garbage when there are so many other great games (or other forms of media) out there I could be playing/watching instead. Y'know, games with good endings AND good beginnings. Fucking hell. Edit: The only thing I disagree with you on is the titans being smaller being portrayed as a negative thing. I actually liked that it felt more enclosed compared to the original XC. It creates a different atmosphere but not a worse one imo.

[@LordlyWeeb]

It get's good a couple hours in, really.

[@LordlyWeeb]

@mrcristofer 2013 Sure. Me liking a pretty well liked game is "being in denial", alright.

[@SecretShadowRings]

i dont know, banana. but joking aside, i really do agree with a lot about the game you spoke about, especially about the gacha system and audio. those dragged down the experience for me and it's honestly one of the reasons i cant go back to the base game, but give the dlc a shot. all the audio quips were an ear ache and i think with all the hours i put into the game for a single playthrough, i toned out the game, but even returning from the gameplay to cutscenes, i found out myself almost no longer invested in the story, like i was still drowning out the combat audio only to have to work to get myself to pay attention to the story again. as for the gacha system, yeah, there's no excuse for it. the low chance of success to get the rare blades killed it, and with the all the level grinding just to level up the field skills to access certain areas, it was just a mess. this makes me think of how it was much better in a game like Paper Mario, OG or TTYD, where you cant access specific areas because you havent unlocked or found the equipment to reach the intended area, but once you have the equipment, you can break the obstacle to have it no longer impede your progress and come back to it again if you needed to, or you found the alternate route so you could get there another way. with the field skills needing certain blades with specific skills AND having to be leveled to get anywhere, I was just about done trying to get to the end because of how tedious it was getting.

[@fryingf1sh]

I think it’s hilarious that TotK actually DOES have a gacha system

[@jerryborjon]

Yeah, but it’s fun in that game

[@Baltaczar]

@@jerryborjon I dunno if I'd say "fun" (example: today I really wanna play a gacha to have some fun instead of killing lynels), but it's not frustrating and shitty, at most theres 6 items in 1 thing and if you put 5 cores at once (which are easy to find) you get like 12 items back

[@jerryborjon]

@@Baltaczar - Yeah, that’s a more accurate way to put it. The system is also very reasonable, and doesn’t need to prevent players from save scumming to get a good result. It also doesn’t randomly get harder to get the last items you don’t have because of bad programming. You won’t need to grind for a ton of Zonai objects to retry the gacha system, just to not get the last few Zonai devices you don’t have yet.

[@equinoxeagle8912]

Ngl, your massive hateboner towards this game really makes me want Rex in Smash even more

[@MrToonlink53]

Imagine the reaction lol

[@wozthescott2804]

Only reason I’d want him in is for more XC2 music because XC2 music got fucked in Smash lol

[@equinoxeagle8912]

Well this aged well :P

[@Jrpg_guy]

@@equinoxeagle8912 right?

[@SporianSummit]

Morag and brigid would have been severely better than what characters we got but atleast we got good music though we also got mediocre characters but its not a case of "AnImE sWoRdFiGhTeR ReEeEeEe!!!!!!!!!1!11" but its more of a case of relatively mediocre-low quality characters that only really appeal to weaboos and coomers. We can only dream.

[@ZaxFSO8083]

As a person who bought XC2 a few years ago and only completed it earlier this year (and having the time of my life with XC3) I can say that my experience with XC2 is that of a mixed bag. I overall like the main characters, I say overall because if I went in depth with my impressions of them all I’d lose the point I’m trying to make. The STORY on the other hand I was able to sit through it with little difficulty but as I got closer and closer and ultimately saw the ending…. yeaaah I wish I had experienced something else entirely because by the end I had tapped out, hard. The gameplay, it grew on me I’m not gonna lie about that however I can only say it was after about chapter 5 that I took the gameplay at the same interest and value I do any other game I like to play. I had such an awkward time with the game I let it auto battle THE ENTIRE TIME UNTIL chapter 6 or 7. I’d like to warn everyone that even though I have 2 Torna I haven’t played it STILL because of what and how things happened in the closing chapters of XC2’s story. And this is me having played over 200 hours of 2’s base game. I’m still missing a good 5 blades (because I’m trying to get them all before the headache that’s going to be shooting for the NG+ blades), so I’ll cap things off by saying DAMN YOU the only “free” gacha game, which is one of the very many gacha games that also doesn’t give you the slightest hint of whether or not you have higher or lower chance of getting something good/worthwhile. If you have read this I am open to discussing and elaborating further. Thanks for reading.

[@faidou9954]

When's part 3?

[@archedmash9501]

He said part 3 was gonna be about the combat. Probably didn't want people to know he's bad at the game.

[@zactyl8387]

You know you can actually lose the tutorial battle after unlocking Pyra? I know that because I lost it twice, then won the third one doing the same thing to my knowledge. I don't even know what I did different the rhird time I fought him to win, that doesn't make me enjoy overcoming someone who fefeated me, that just makes me thing this game is a gamble in each battle. (Dropped the game in the part where Poppy has to learn lv3 of noppn culture)

[@dragocrafterr8286]

Would love a mature podcast/discussion vid about Xc2 with you & either of the big xc2 youtubers Chuggaaconroy/Enel

[@doddynuryanto3800]

that would be cool

[@sultan_3864]

Totally agree with this. I’m assuming he never talked to any XC2 speedrunners about their opinion of the game or any huge fans of the game other than his “friends that have garbage taste in anime” or whatever

[@TriforceZard]

Enel did a livestream with a couple of notable Xenoblade content creators and the stream consisted of them constantly laughing at the video.

[@sultan_3864]

@mrcristofer 2013 okay. i only know enel and he seems chill.

[@sultan_3864]

@mrcristofer 2013 bro who cares. its just a game. i personally do like the game just have other games to play that i got recently. capt astro just has a shit take on the game tbh. like how he categorizes the game as anime which doesnt make sense because all of the other games have an anime like style

[@skadi2911]

A very interesting review, to say the least. As for myself, i really liked Xenoblade 2, because i just ignored the raisin :D Honestly, i do see the points you're making, even if i disagree with some of them. You did bring new things to the table tho, i never actually thought about the ludo-narrative dissonance. Maybe it's because i played through the game back when i was a teenager, idk. At the time, i clearly was in the target audience. It's really weird to think about these games that have so many flaws, but that you played just at the right time and thus helped you fall in love with a series. I mean, i discovered Xeno 1 since then, and i now prefer it to X and 2, but i don't think i could ever replay 2 and mind all that much about its flaws, cause i'll just remember all the good times that i had with it. Same goes for games like Skyward Sword for instance. Nowadays i clearly see how all of the handholding and heavy "Zelda for dummies" hurts the game in terms of widening its target audience. But at the time, i was 11 y.o. ans i was exactly the game's target audience : a Zelda dummy. I loved the game the first time, replayed it numerous times until i didn't even care about Fi or the tutorials anymore. I just ignore them, and have a good time because i love the game and am very good at it as well. And i know it kinda sounds like describing nostalgia, but it's not just that that i'm thinking about. I don't straight up ignore the games' problems and flaws, they're just not as big deal breakers to me as they're to someone else. I can still do a playthrough of these games today and have a really good time doing so. I just try to aknowledge what kind of people are targeted by what kind of games.

[@justice8718]

If you prefer X1, you seriously need to grab a chart and list the characteristics/backstory Dickson has in XC1's main story and the characteristics/backstory Vandham has in XC2's main story. Trust me, it will really change your perspective on either stories and how you view Shulk and Rex as characters.

[@thekingofspeed8960]

@@justice8718 Been a while since I played XC2 but I’m pretty sure Rex was trash until Chapter 7.

[@luisdabest5396]

@@thekingofspeed8960 yeah that’s pretty much how it worked. Not that rex was annoying to me before or anything, but chapter 7 really made him feel more human to me

[@PrincessRinsicles]

I agree with basically all of your points, I hate when games retcon what JUST NOW happened in the battle, and gacha (GAMBLING) systems, bosses being turned into jokes by tutorials, and a tiresome around of cutscenes. Thank you for these videos, I can sum up more easily now why I don't like games that are littered with this stuff. banana

[@Rigamlight]

My experience with Xenoblade 2 (with DLC from the start): - Oh boy this game is the sequel of one of the greatest games I've ever played 😍. - Mmmmmm ok I can't move and attack 😕. - (searches on the internet how to make the combat more bearable, inevitably spoiling some of the game) 😮‍💨. - Ok this is fine (not great) 😅 let's keep playing. - (Realizes about the blades gotcha system) mmmm :/ ok let's open all the cores (which blades are best for who tho 😵‍💫?) - Ok I guess I got some good blades, let's put them with their best driver ☺️ (looks on the internet for info again to match drivers and blades spoiling stuff AGAIN). - Realizes about the overdrive protocol 🥴. - Ok let's watch on the internet again how you can farm overdrive protocols (spoiling more shit) because SURELY such a basic need and mechanic will FOR SURE be not that hard to farm 🧐. - Realizes there are just 4 overdrive protocols in the entire FUCKING game (plus the DLC ones which shouldn't be sealed behind a pay wall to begin with) and the other ways to get protocols are AFTER the main story in NG+ with a huge grind wall 😤😤😤😤. - Goes to the switch main manu, deletes the game 🖕. What a fucking shitty game/experience, what a waste of money, now I'm just in fear and praying Xenoblade 3 doesn't resemble this crap at all 😠. NOTE: for the first Karen who comes and tells me "you didn't have to look on the internet and spoil stuff for yourself that is your fault" yeah you are right, but I wouldn't have the fucking NEED to do it if ONLY the game explained something about it whatsoever and didn't put punishing systems like the stupid "overdrive protocols" to begin with and didn't make me feel like any wrong step was irreversible 😠.

[@luisdabest5396]

I can understand, but I also went on KZbin to find out stuff and there are videos made specifically for new players that don’t spoil anything. I don’t know what forums or sources you went to that spoiled so much stuff

[@skylandersfan6954]

You can just go to Chugga or Enel's channels

[@tvoyager7]

This guy GOES IN on this game. i love it

[@LionessPaladin]

Low Key just kinda want a new Xeno series we had Gears, the Saga trilogy, and now the Blade series I kinda just wanna move on and maybe go back to making mechs and the zohar more important to the plot/gameplay

[@NurioMarayana]

Am I going bananas, or is there no part 3 yet?

[@coricos9849]

16:43 Hmm, at least you can change that in the menu putting more volume to the voices or less to the music

[@silvshi9302]

I subbed from the splatoon content, stayed for how entertaining you are lol also a part of me feels like that rex should've stayed dead, and instead have nia as the mc because jin/malos killing rex and killing everyone who came with them made her question stuff or smthn.

[@skylandersfan6954]

That would miss the point of Xenoblade 2's message

[@zeldaau1017]

4:13 _Capture taken._ same dude, same

[@RhomniStJohn]

27:11 When Tears of the Kingdom's world is filled with literal Gacha machines and everyone's fine with it because it's a minor mechanic and the drop rate for everything is acceptable.

[@supercoolafroguy]

Very different context. It’s much easier and more reliable to get the parts you need to build what ever you want in TOTK. In Xeno 2, there’s nothing you can meaningfully do to increase the chances of getting rare blades

[@skylandersfan6954]

​@@supercoolafroguyI mean if you want in XB2 theres a bunch of guarenteed Blades you can get like Praxis, Theory, Wulfric, Roc, Sheba, Herald, Kassandra, Vess, Aegaeon and Nia, you dont need rng to make a full team

[@mrcat4508]

I am glad we are in agreement on being forced to beat a boss only to lose in the cutscenes after it Banana

[@GoGalactic]

Loved this video, I eventually go through the slow combat when I finally figured out the elemental burst system (when I played the tutorials couldn't be referenced back so I went through most of the game wondering why I couldn't do big number damage lol) And also yeah, the scantily clad blades are the reason why I didn't want to play this in front of friends or family lol

[@runaway74]

Still waiting on part 3 :(

[@thomastyrrell49]

Dunno if this matters anymore but just wanted to say that deactivated core crystals activate again after a certain amount of "battle initiations", not a number of hours. Still sucks to have to spam battle initiations but whatever

[@eggrollin5718]

If you remember the video when Astro talked about burning sword 3 years ago you deserve a veteran's badge

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Yeah I was even lazy while editing and just copy-pasted parts of that video in this one haha

[@kevenandsoki]

banana. it's hilarious how much more positive my experience with xenoblade 2 has been considering i didn't play it, i just watched a 14 hour compilation of all the cutscenes.

[@ScrubLord545]

persona fans be like

[@PixelHeroViish]

I watched Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play and ended up hating practically everyone that wasn't Mórag, Poppi or Zeke lmao

[@samjacob7300]

IDK banana! I love Xenoblade 2 and I love these videos. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Torna- The Golden Country!

[@coricos9849]

He is gonna complain 30 minutes about the community system

[@chrischris2640]

So, xenoblade 2 was my first exposure to the series and my first impressions were that the combat in this game looks really boring, the voices do not fit the characters, why does the main character look so stupid and that the writing doesn't seem too good. I basically lost interest in both this game and the series in general

[@jerelwright1495]

I trust me coming after xc1 xxx and liked xc3 this feels like a mistake of a xc2 game.

[@skylandersfan6954]

How do the voices not fit the characters?

[@Superflash154]

I don’t know anything about this game sooo.... *intense whistling*

[@gg_novastar8492]

It’s not as bad as he says it is. He’s REALLY blowing things out of proportion

[@laraa739]

@@gg_novastar8492 He's really not though, it all depends on how much the things he's listing bother you but them not being that bad for you doesn't mean they're not there

[@kingneo6736]

@@laraa739 He kinda is tho, but the thing that really bothers me is that he's blames the game for things hes doing wrong in most parts

[@TriforceZard]

It’s a good game. This isn’t simply a case of somebody not liking the game. He genuinely is missing key parts of this game. Also a lot of his complaints are things Xenoblade 1 did too.

[@weebderick3626]

He was losing to the beginner boss brighid. The combat in 2 is MUCH better than 1 but he doesnt grasp that. He blames the game alot for his misunderstandings. I would say play it for urself to find if its for u.

[@demigod5598]

Just subbed bro love how real your channel is and how much you don’t care what people think cuz i feel the same way xenoblade 1 will always be better

[@muhammadnour283]

33:11 I’m not seeing the issue

[@cookedghost]

Ngl, I considered buying this game because I saw Mòrag's design in Smash and loved it to bits. Like, a cool-looking non-sexualised female character that seems to be some kind of military commander? Yes please. Then I looked at the rest of the characters and here I am playing Three Houses for the fourth time

[@doggomando883]

This video predicted tears of the kingdom getting a gacha mechanic lol

[@hitothelivingdrawing1035]

If you want to play xenoblade 2, but good go play tales of arise it’s surprising how many of the bad things in this game that tales of arise does better lol.

[@skylandersfan6954]

Such as?

[@hitothelivingdrawing1035]

@@skylandersfan6954a main character stuck with a magical sword wielding woman who isn’t a plank of wood like Pyra, a blue protag that actually has personality, a bunch of cutscenes which aren’t overly long, and don’t detract from from the gameplay, tutorials that are well placed and not intrusive, battles that the player is forced to lose sometimes in gameplay as well as the cutscenes, fun gameplay with lots of customization, basic soldiers that are actually threatening, and well done enemy placement unlike xeno2 where I once saw a level 80 tiny crab right next to a level 40 giant dragon lol

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@hitothelivingdrawing1035 1. Calling Pyra a plank of wood is incredibly disengious, she has a really interesting character when you look below the surface into her extremely tragic origins and motivations as well as her relation to Mythra 2. Rex is brimming with personality, I don't even care if you dislike him but arguing he doesn't have a personality when his personality is the entire thematic crux of the game and its both and told to us many times is extremely questionable 3. Many battles in Xenoblade 2 which you lose are lost both in the cutscene and in gameplay, stuff like the Jin fight in Tantal is a good example as well as the first Rosa fight and the Malos and Akhos fight. The only example of losing in a cutscene you dont lose to in game is the first Malos fight which is somewhat forgivable given its the first boss in the game You only really nailed the last 2 things and those are a Xenoblade series staple anyway, and they aren't really massive issues to begin with

[@hitothelivingdrawing1035]

@@skylandersfan6954. Sorry but we are just going to have to agree to disagree on Pyra maybe you are thinking of the prequel dlc I haven’t played, but in the base game she is definitely a plank of wood and it’s not like Mythra is any better being the most generic tsundere I have ever seen in a video game 2. Sorry did I say Rex has no personality? What I meant to say is that he has an awful personality him trying to ditch the party right when things aren’t going his way really can’t be argued with 3. I’m sorry, but saying it doesn’t happen all the time so therefore it’s forgivable is not a good point to be making especially when in tales of arise it never happens, and just because something is a staple doesn’t mean it’s a good thing otherwise people would be praising sonic games for staying consistent with their glitches and bugs, furthermore I haven’t played any other games in this series because 2 has scared me away from doing so 4. I have no idea what you are doing in a comment section of a video hating on a game you seem to like so much but if you enjoy it all the more power to you my guy

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@hitothelivingdrawing1035 1. Me when I ignore Pyra and Mythra's arc about depression and suicide because I didn't pay attention to the story and call Mythra a tsundere even though she isn't because a girl who doesn't immediately dickride the mc is not a tsundere. Me when I miss the part where Pyra is created as Mythra's opposite in every way because she hates herself and views Pyra as the ideal self she thinks the world needs while Pyra struggles living with the memories and responsibilities of being the Aegis despite not asking for either and having to keep those feelings she has bottled up in order to keep everyone around her happy because thats her role 2. Its almost like the scene you're talking about with Rex was supposed to be written as him intentionally having to learn from it. God forbid characters have flaws that they overcome and show they don't define the character in question, which is funny because the entire point of that scene is he's acting nothing like himself and the party tells him this 3. I said it happens once, stop putting stuff in my mouth. That one example is the only one where you win in the game but lose in the cutscene, every other fight its either win in both or lose in both. Also, Territorial Rotbart is nowhere near the level of gamebreaking glitches and bugs in Sonic games because it isnt a problem unlike those things listed. If you can't comprehend stuff like basic character writing and arcs without being spoonfed the information in the most hamfisted least subtle way imaginable, then Xenoblade very obviously is not for you. Go watch a marvel movie or something

[@afromarco005]

There's a reason why I'm special inquisitor!

[@GavinAutomata]

Never wanted to cyber bully so bad

[@matjaz5684]

Xenobros....where is part 3.....cmon do a part 3 like you said......

[@SoloJustus]

You getting flamed on Twitter lmao

[@CaptainAstronaut]

People are talking about me :)

[@EMre___64]

pretty common for the community...

[@Kreinsamer]

2:03 So... what was this heart-to-heart originally about? I couldn't find anything online.

[@An_Entire_Lime]

Please I need to know ;-;

[@yuukovukovich9996]

XC2 is the Marmite of video games. You either love it or you hate it. I fall into the former camp but understand the latter. Are you planning to post a review of Torna though? I think you gave it a 6/10 in your XC3 video.

[@kirbyatethanos]

Nah this shit gotta be bait ain’t no way

[@CaptainAstronaut]

I got some bad news, bud

[@kirbyatethanos]

@@CaptainAstronaut 🏃🏾‍♂️💨

[@coffee_on_my_cardigan]

Sorry Lord Astronaut but I actually unironically love this game 😔

[@CaptainAstronaut]

There's nothing wrong with liking this game! Everyone should like what they like, and not be ashamed of it

[@xRyper7]

God this series is so cathartic, cant wait for the final part Banana

[@ArekkusuAlex-8]

After coming from XC1, I tried my hardest to play XC2 but quit at chapter 7. It's really not for me (especially gamplay wise). Started XC2 Torna, which I like better, and the gameplay is more enjoyable.

[@skylandersfan6954]

Damn, you quit at the best part too

[@oscarbarahona8496]

I quit at chapter 4 it really wasn't for me either.

[@skylandersfan6954]

@@oscarbarahona8496 Understandable tbh, Chapter 4 is definitely the low point of the game but it gets much better afterwards