It sucks that's for sure.

If you've only just started, then the combat systme really picks up and just continues to build and build.

Each of your 7 characters have different abilities, and a completely different fighting style, as well as 16 unique Arts and a unique Talent Art. Then you have the enemies, who use status effects, and (damn annoying) Spikes, and the Party Gauge, and the Monado abilities, and the Mechon, and the environment to watch out for... I don't get why you'd think it was worse than ARF (which does have an epic fighting system!)

I'd imagine some people are getting to the 'first plot point' now, where the game really begins (you'll know if you've seen it). Just after that bit, the game REALLY starts as you go through the cave to the first of 6 'major' open areas. That moment when you come out of the cave to the music on Gaur plains...I don't care if the graphics aren't top-notch, that moment is beautiful.

Got the game this afternoon and I am already 4 hours in...
Impressions so far:

-The game is massive, simply huge...
-Music is fabulous, simply stunning.
-Story seems very interesting so far, a very very unexpected twist to the story very early... 8o
-Voice acting is very well done...
-it seems like an item and customisation heaven. I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of sidequest, items, gears and weapons I was getting just after two hours...
-named monsters are not kidding... (died a few times)
- I saw a spider lvl 36 in a cave, I was lvl 6 so I died almost immediately... I'll be back for revenge though!

Curious fact... There is only one store selling the game here in Costa Rica, the store was closed today so even though they made (180 preorders) my friend who works there got my copy yesterday for me, so I was probably one of the very few, if not the only who got the game today ;9

Wow such an amazing game I just put the controller down and it is 4:20AM I have been playing since 6:30 and was playing for about two hours before then. Such a terrific game I love it, cant wait to resume playing tomorrow and eventually see how it ends. Seeing my girl die near the beginning really pissed me off. I've spent a lot of time just killing innocent animals and gathering money and buying weapons...etc...etc...

Such a good game!

A. Don't worry. There's plenty more plot twists like this later in the game. You're really only taking baby-steps :P

B. In the next area (Bionis' Leg) there's a selection of level 10 monsters roaming the field, with a lv. 78 roaming with them. That's...quite exciting, to say the least. And yes, they don't hang about! Can be quite a challenge...

I'm glad that you're enjoying the game, however! 

Yep, that's very easy to do! And it is a great game, but you won't be seeing the ending anytime soon

And the whole death at the start is no biggy. I saw it as more of a 'move away from convention' as far as the story goes, and this revelation is basically saying not to believe everything you see, and how, sometimes, you can't save everyone, no matter how important to the story they are. It also casts doubt over the vision system; how you may be able to see the incident, but can't do anything about it.

Good scene, that.

Let me just throw this out in the air, even if I'll be getting a ton of crap for it:
Maybe I've played way too much Monster Hunter and gotten used to doing everything the hard way, but Xenoblade's play-style and mechanics felt a bit too disconnected for me to completely immerse myself in its world and story. It's still a fantastic game, but I felt more than once that some of the automated MMO elements, re-use of generic artwork for items and gems, and even animation and general responsiveness at times to be a bit.. "off", like I didn't have direct control over characters, and they weren't a real part of the game-world.

The game's world is beautiful and huge, the score is great and the story is interesting, but somehow I still couldn't completely escape from that dreadful feeling I get when playing a mediocre MMO. This is something that still bothers me occasionally when I boot up the game, it's not so much an isolated technical issue as much as a feeling I get that often breaks my immersion.. anybody have some advice?

hehe, well yeah, there's that

but I'm also talking about some of the elements they borrowed from MMOs, they made the game feel a bit "cheap" for me sometimes. I'm still not sure if this was a design choice or more a constraint due to limits in time and budget. It's not game-breaking for me, but it does hurt the consistency of my experience.

I've wanted this game ever since Mayuyu's TV Commercial.

 Yes, I'm like that.

This is what I'm talking about.

And why the F is it so hard to add video to a post edit. Forces me to double.