I don't recall Xenoblade 1 ever spiking me to the degree of Jin in Chapter 9 nor did Xenoblade 1 ever glitch out on me like Xenoblade 2 did a couple of times.

I'd say the game has very high highs and low lows, but unlike you, I think the former far makes up for the latter.

Narrative and artstyle were fantastic, though admittedly subjective. Menus and combat ware marked improvements over the previous games, I honestly can't remember the last time I felt so absorbed in a game's combat system. Character movement and navigation are fair points, though aren't really significant issues to me. The special field skill things can burn in hell though. Honestly just letting the field skills trigger based on your whole Blade list rather than simply equipped Blades would make it infinitely more tolerable..really hope they update that.

The name escapes me, but I had a much tougher time with one of the close-to-endgame bosses in XC1, that High Entian woman that was working with Dickson. Those poison puddles give me nightmares still.

Meanwhile, I beat Jin on my first try, despite being around at the same level as him. It's a good thing I love Mythra so much, because having her at S-rank makes Rex OP as hell. I think overall this game just rewards players for making full use of in-game systems rather than focusing on strict stat increases like most RPGs.

That one gave me a lot of trouble at first too, until I realized I was doing it all wrong; the trick with her is to main Melia and spam her with Ether attacks, then she goes down like the Hindenburg.

I suppose you can say I was playing that game wrong, since I never really used Melia to her full potential. Most of my game was Shulk/Dunban, Reyn/Fiora, and Sharla party. I really need to replay that game and take full advantage of everything.

Still...I suppose that just makes it a recurring theme with this series. :P

Yeah all of the Xenoblade games have frustrating difficulty spikes; the first game is just the one that pissed me off the least out of the three. I never considered rage quitting it like I did like X and 2.

I'd argue I'm in the situation as you. The fact that the game feels and plays like a Xenoblade is more than enough for me, no matter all the annoyances it may have. 

Yeah, it needed 6 months of polish time; would have been another instant classic.

Thankfully they are actively patching it and slowly fixing the glaring issues.  Fantastic game, I enjoyed it as much as BOTW.

This story just makes me wonder what kind of game Xenoblade Chronicles 3 could be if was developed for Switch 2 and had all eyes, hands, and feet on deck. Especially if Nintendo gives Monolith significantly more money and higher budget to work with after the great success of 2. I think it could be a game with production values on the same level as Final Fantasy XV or VII Remake; Or maybe even XVI.

I didn’t find the game had any difficulty spikes after chapter 7. The biggest difficulty spike for me was Chapter 4, the giant robot at the end of the factory (mostly because that’s where I was forced to learn the systems, all other spikes just needed a stay at the inn to use the bonus XP; even chapter 4 was NOWHERE near as Xord from XC, which requires a ton of grinding, even on my third play through it required more grinding than any point in XC2; and then there were bigger ones such as Lorithia, Gadolt, and Zanza at the end of the game - which (if you were as grossly under leveled for the point I was) required you to turn off the game and return to the save point - a while back, in order to grind out levels - extra annoying because you need to set aside a significant amount of time in order to get past that portion, and if something comes along (and you need to turn off the game) you lose all your progress, which could be quite substantial. There is nothing like that in XC2. XC2 is much better balanced, but it’s also a shorter game.

Still, I think the worst difficulty spikes of any Takahashi game are still Xenosaga Episode 2. Even on my second play through it took me about ten attempts to get past the Patriarch. That boss is the most brutal I have come across in a post early-16-bit RPG (You have to go back to games like Phantasy Star 2 and Seventh Saga to see spikes like that)

With the kind of sales XC 2 got/will get, and how early we are in the Switch life, I 100% expect XC 3 or XC X 2 to come to Switch in about three years time.