https://www.resetera.com/threads/xenoblade-2-blade-chain-driver-combo-advanced-battle-guide.9206/

The scenery this series creates truly stands out.

I don't think there's too much to learn, but the rampant tutorials make it feel that way. It's WAY  too handholdy. I can also see the way they are written may make simple things seem much more complex than they actually are; the whole chain attack one could just circle the party gauge and say "when this fills up, press + to execute a chain attack." then just allow the player to watch what happens. I think having it off to the side in an instruction manual type format would be much superior; especially if it had image visuals. I don't like tutorials, and I think this game relies too heavily on them, and when they introduce stuff, it feels very disconnected from what the player needs. It's almost arbitrarily introduced. To me, this is a minor gripe, something I wish was done differently, it doesn't particularly take away from the main experience though; but I can see how some players, particularly newer players to the franchise, or RPGs in general, may take issue.

On the voice acting, I love it! Easily the best that the series has ever had.

Speaking of which, I hope the Xenosaga games eventually have a proper Western release. I don't necessarily think they need new voice acting, it was decent, but it would be very nice if they got it.

That's my main grip too. I mean, Xenoblade saga is really great, but not a single game managed to do the learning curve right. I'd prefer that to make it more.... integral to the gameplay, they could make a character being your mentor and teaching you things as you progress. Rex's grandpa, for example, could fit that role perfectly. It'd still be too intrusive, but at least it'd feel more organic to the game experience. That wouldn't solve the problem, but, to be honest, I can't think of a perfect way to teach you so many things throughout the game. I prefer this approach to the XCX one, which was pretty much... not having any approach xD.

Heh, I actually loved the way XCX did it. I loved being dropped into the world and given more freedom; but yeah, I have probably played over 100 RPGs all the way through, and am into games like Dwarf Fortress. I also love exploring mechanics and UI on my own. So I'm not necessarily the best example of player to go by when thinking about how to design for most players.

The worst tutorial mess I ever saw was Final Fantasy 8. That seems to have messed up anywhere between 40 and 60% of players. The issue was the tutorial introduction of the draw system, but not at all introducing the core feature for gathering magic - which is the crafting system; it should be introduced BEFORE drawing.

Essentially, crafting/refining magic from materials is the primary way a player can get magic. Instead, players were just accumulating all those items that enemies dropped in battles, forgetting about them, and got all their magic from drawing instead; which is extraordinarily tedious, and likely ruined the experience for a lot of people. It's why you have a lot of people who have Final Fantasy 8 as their favourite Final Fantasy, and many who list it as their least favourite. If they ever remade Final Fantasy 8, then I imagine they would do things very differently in that regard. When I ask people why they hate FF8, drawing is typically their top answer - but the game actually gives you more than enough items for crafting to get through the game without drawing; it's essentially there for players who want to max out more quickly on a specific type of magic - but it is completely unnecessary for game progression, as you get more than enough items.

Speaking of Final Fantasy 8, the Xenoblade games share some mechanics with that game. Takahashi was also one of the designers on FF8, so I imagine they are his work: draw points, proactive dialogue boxes, and refinement.

Heh, it's funny that I actually think that FFVIII is the worst game in the franchise (for me the franchise died with FFX, so everything after that is a disgrace xD). The tutorial system was some of the things I thought it was awful. And the combat system and how you can exploit it easily to be OP as hell, I thought that was a really bad decision. But, yeah, I'm the type of player who prefers a hand-holding when the game has an awful lot of gameplay mechanics and personalization. In games like BOTW there was no problem, because that game was fairly accessible to play. But in this game I'd feel at lost. It happened for me in XCX. I ended up loving the game and putting more than 150 hours on it, but at the beginning I was totally overwhelmed by it.

I don't recall the crafting in FF8, I just did drawing pretty sure. Still my favorite FF game.

Drawing wasn't too bad. You just got to a new area, and check new enemy if they had an item you didn't have. You then spend 15 minutes drawing in that fight and your good to go if you wanted it. A bit tedious, but simple enough. Reminds me of like when getting to a new area running around the map uncovering every area and talking to all random npc's. Also tedious, but just something I do when entering new area. Like Xenoblade 2 right now, when I get to a new town, I'm running around the whole town and talking to a ton of pointless npcs and other stuff before I even think of touching the main mission when I arrive.

I feel lIke I got in that habit due to some RPG's having missable quests in the past. I want to make sure I do everything before it disappears because I talked to someone. As much as I prefer open games like Xeno, it is somewhat a more relaxing rpg in a linear experience like ff13. Tales games are the worst though. Like after every single main quest thing you need to rescoure the entire globe ot make sure you didn't miss anything new that pops up for only a second.

Incidentally, two of my favourite three Final Fantasy games are the easiest ones to abuse: 6 and 8. They are also two of the three Final Fantasy games that Tetusya Takahashi was a designer on. Both games have elements that made it into the Xeno-series.

Don't recal abusing or not in FF games. All FF games are super easy anyway so what's to abuse. Even those Omega weapons are always easy.

What made FF8 my favorite game besides enjoying story and characters was two things I think mostly. Whenever I think of replaying the game it is because of those two things.

1. The books you find that talk about new weapons and you upgrading them. Was so cool finding a new magazine showing off a new weapon upgrade and then going to a weapon smith and seeing what parts you needed for it and finally making it.

2. The card game. Collecting all the cards and playing the card game. Heck, sometimes I just play the beginning of the game and just hang out on the main area playing cards. Super fun winning tough cards from players when your deck sucks.

Love me some random stuff inside a game. Like Witcher 3's card game was great. Loving the Mercenary stuff I just unlocked in Xeno 2. Reminds me of the thing in Tales of Berseria. Not sure yet on the Poppi minigame. Don't play too many of those types of side scroller games, but its a decent enough game to play in bed portable before bed.

Yeah, I liked Final Fantasy 13 as well for the linearity of it. I think for me, the only thing I didn't like with it was the large volume of battles. There are few games that wow me visually, and FF13 was one of them. The others I can recall: Sonic the Hedgehog, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7, Skies of Arcadia, Super Mario Galaxy, Xenoblade Chronicles (Makna Forest), and Xenoblade Chronicles X (Sylvalum). I was probably wowed by a bunch of earlier games too, but I don't have a clear enough memory of which those were.