I laughed out loud the first time I heard it.

The battle dialogue is nowhere near as packed or diverse as XCX, which is unfortunate but understandable. XCX was beyond budget expectation. There's substantially more repetition in XC2 as a result.

The performance issues are a bit nitpicky. I admit that I don't have much of an eye for these things, but I have barely noticed any issues, it's pretty much just after loading for like half a second. I have come across some very minor slowdown, but no lag, noticeable framerate drops, or any strange resolution drops.

What’s wrong with beating someone’s ass with the power of friendship?

You will start thinking you can take them, and that's really bad. 

I mean that's largely the end goal of many JRPG plots or indeed any RPG with a party instead of a lone hero but you're usually a bit more subtle about it :P

But in all seriousness, it's battle narration.  You can turn it down or even off if you wish.

So ... can a Xeno expert fill me in on something. I'm trying as hard as possible to make sure my characters have the best equipment buffs. There is one equipment that gives my character +22 strength(or 24?) and another that allows you to do 30% more damage per auto attack. The question is, which one is better? Which ones gives you more attack power?

Loving the game so far. 40 hours in at Chapter 4. Been sidetracked with side quests and merc missions. Yeah, Rex has a silly design but he is a good character. The music is amazing. The world is so fun to explore. The compass sucks. The side quests are not great TBH. No this isn't my first in the series. I'm so glad this game is loaded with towns. The first game had too few IMO. The second game needed them period. The fact the towns are big is also a nice plus. The worlds could be a bit less confusing. I love exploring but not being lost. Overall it's a very good game and I'm hooked.

Miranium is so easy to get post game it isn't funny, so is revenue. You don't have to farm for those 1/200 craft items you can just get them using tickets, which are plentiful if you use the online mode that's "tacked on". I get several level 60 skells, Ares 90, and Ares 70 in 2 weeks of here and there playing. Augments cost much less than those. There also is limbs you can target to increase odds of getting specific drops.

Also do not agree that skells and arms manufacturers are useless or overly complicated. 

*Impactful Speech music starts playing*

"You see Rex, War is not about right or wrong. War is about powe-"

*IMPACTFUL MUSIC BLASTS*

"-and that's why it's the -"

*KEYBOARD GOES BERSERK*

"- and that's all i'm trying to tell ya kid. You got that?"

Lol that whole speech was BS

It's really just math. Which one gives you more based on your current levels. Of course, if they are two different types of accessories, a raw boost plus modifier can help a lot. So the 22 strength * 30% means you have a +29 strength item on top of the 30% boost to all other strength. Ultimately, that will boost the amount of damage you do.

I'm absolutely in love with this game right now. The more I play, the more I appreciate what Monolith did. Customization is so, so good, deep and rewarding. I spend a lot of time building up my team and doing side quests. At first, I though that side quests were a bit bland, but the affinity missions some rare blades have are pretty cool. I did two of them and it helped me to understand those blades more, and the design of those blades really fit their characters.

Some things I'd improve though. Better map navigation. I don't think it's THAT bad, but it has a lot of margin to improve though. I don't mind about the marks in the top of the screen though, they give you a general position, so you have to explore a bit to find how to reach some places. Some of them are not pretty obvious, but I manage to find every place I want to go in. And I'd prefer that you don't have to equip the blades to a character to use their field skills. I get that you can only use a limited number of blades to reach the level, but I think the game could do that automatically. Also, at first it's cool to use the crystals, but I'd prefer an option to open every crystal in one sit. I had 30 crystals to open and it took me about half an hour to open everything xD. Minor grips in an otherwise truly fantastic game, and a candidate to best JRPG ever in my book. I can easily picture myself putting way more than 100 hours into it.