LogFAQs > #977066378

Torgo posted...

What do you think of the base game?

I love the world and the characters models, I find the characters and story much better than the mess that was XC2, but the combat mechanics and class system is absolutely bloated while still being dumbed down and largely pointless.

Honestly, it might be the weakest of the Xenoblade games to me, and apparently I'm alone in that view.
The combat was probably the best part, a good mix of 1 and 2 though more heavily based on 2. Chain attack is laughably overpowered and the heroes that boost it are thus way stronger than the others. I'd say 2nd best combat after X.
Exploration was also pretty good, I'd say again, 2nd best after X.
Story was utter dog shit. Took way too long to build up, made XC2's forced tutorial bloat look quaint by comparison, and there were so many hours of just absolute "nothing" dialogue packed in. Then the ending was just bad. 2nd worst main story in the series after X (except X had great sidequests to save it a bit, and in this one the sidequests are also dull).
Characters were likeable (except "bitch princess" [to use her own phrasing against her] and her "friend"; god were they insufferable) but none really positively stood out. I guess Eunie and Lanz were the best characters, meanwhile Sena's personality was apparently...not having one. Again... similar to X.

Basically, XC3 had a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as X, except X did combat and exploration better and had some saving graces or (in the case of the music...which while all Xenoblade games excel at, X and 3 have the weakest OSTs, too...the bad tracks in X were so bad they were at least funny to laugh at).

The only thing I might rank it above is FC, but FC barely even feels like a game, it's just a meaningless thrown together bonus chapter. So I usually don't rank it at all.

Overall, I rank the series:
1 > X > Torna > 2 > 3

That said... the DLC for 3 has 1 and 2 characters in it (Shulk and Alvis being the two I'm most interested in) and I've seen people say the story is a lot better than the main game, so I still want to get it. And XC3 is by no means a bad game, it's a solid like... 7.5 or 8 out of 10.