Think you can take me? Don’t forget me.

Still gonna play through it though.

Has anyone else noticed the "dungeons" in this game are pretty well designed? I guess they're kinda basic but I love going in them, they just have a lot of nice touches.

What chapter are you playing?

I don't remember tbh . When I get on later I'll tell ya. 

I love the combat, more so then any game in the current franchise. The lack of ability to attack while moving is a necessary trade off, as the element combo and chain attack system gives you built in ailments in the former of cinematic super moves.

Some early on will say it is auto combat, but later and more difficult fights require constantly using arts an in some cases maintaining party health to ensure you and the party are not wiped out. Heck, the last named beast I just beat was due to me pulling off a special at the last moment to finish the enemy off. Awesome game.

While I appreciate that a lot of people like the micromanagement/complexity, I kinda feel like XBC2 has too many systems for its own good. Between upgrading arts, equipping aux cores, equipping blade chips, upgrading affinity skills, etc I have my hands so full that I end up flat-out ignoring other stuff like the salvaging minigame, side quests, or merc quests, simply because I already have so much on my hands and I just want to get on with the bloody story XD

Haha, yeah, the game has an insane number of gameplay mechanics, and at times it could feel pretty overwhelming. But I normally advance until I hit a wall and then I stop to upgrade things. Normally I have to stop once each 4/5 hours more or less, which I feel is not too much of a problem. I actually prefer to pace it like that, instead of constantly stopping to look the inventory, which can be a a bit mood-breaker if you're too invested in the main plot and want to advance because you can't wait xD. 

I actually didn't have any problems to beat the game in that way. I found it a really smooth journey, I haven't stopped to grind a single time, a change of strategy works much better than just level up and beat your enemies by brute force. I feel that in that way is better than the original, because I remember that I had to grind a lot in that game. Maybe because now it's the third game of the franchise that I play so things went smoothly, hard to know. 

Also, there's the bonus XP you can use to push your level higher to get past hurdles if you don't want to fiddle with everything.  Though that has its limits.

Yep, basically. I think the inn mechanic is pretty cool if you're having troubles advancing in the game. I honestly didn't feel once that "frustration" some reviewers suggested, the adventure went smooth as hell. The only thing I don't really like is how field skills are implemented in the game. I'd prefer that field skills don't exist as quests and plot walls. They're cool to get collectibles faster, but that's it. And I'd prefer that all the crystals are opened once, and you get a list of the blades you get. As I said, I normally stop to do all the micromanagement once each 4/5 hours, so open like... 50 crystals... Well, I really need a certain mood to go through that xD. 

So, anyone here is doing some post-game stuff? I'm pretty sad that the story finished (well, after 70 hours I couldn't ask for more xD). And I found some cool side quests related to every rare blade I have, which was cool. But any advises on how to proceed after beating the game? I'm doing some side quests, but I'm not sure what the game has to offer after doing that.

Yeah the Inn mechanic is a godsend to someone like me who isn't particularly great at the game and doesn't want to spend hours power-levelling or doing sidequests.