So, I’m seeing people argue that this game was ahead of its time in 2015 because people disliked it back then and now they love it. That the game was too far ahead of its time.
I disagree with that assessment.

There were a lot of people who loved this game in the day, just on the Internet we got drowned out. Every positive post we made had the same group of vigilant pessimistic piranhas raging against open world games and bombarding the posts with a lot of BS like “the game has no story” (it has plenty of story, and way more emergent storytelling elements than any other Xeno-game to date) “the game is an MMO” (it’s not, it’s a single player game with optional online functionality). And repeating those talking points ad nauseam rather than engaging with anything the fan was saying about the game. And it worked against our discussion, derailing every fan thread into defending the game against the same damn points until they get disproved so thoroughly that piranhas instead of admitting they’re wrong pull a cowardly “I don’t even care/it doesn’t matter” - but will again pull their same disproven talking points out the next time the game is discussed, and try some new sub-arguments out, some new red-herrings.

The only place I could discuss this game were in non-gaming forums, pretty much science fiction fan communities where you’d be likely to find fans of the game, but without the cynical pessimism element present.

So, what’s different today?

So, what’s really happened? Cynicism in gaming communities has dropped substantially since the days of “OHMEGOSH, #Gamergate, #GamerWomenArePoison” because those people largely moved off into doing the same crap against TV shows. The shift probably happened about the time they decided to hate Game of Thrones, the hip thing to do is more “I like the old shows/films more! Therefore, all this new stuff sucks.” Of course, again forgetting that the golden age they pine for today is the same stuff they used to hate. It’s fun in different ways, as I can talk about Babylon 5 now without being bashed. 😀 But that’s a different topic.

The point is, the pessimist piranhas have mostly swam to different lakes. The game is and was absolutely as great, and absolutely attracting fans with a cult-like fervour. The difference is that cynicism is much reduced in gaming discussion these days than it was in 2015. It still exists, but it’s no longer the dominant culture in gamer communities on the Internet. And, generally they only dip back in when a GTA caliber game or a new console is released - Xbox series got it, PS5 got it, Steam Deck got it, and now Switch 2 is getting it, and soon that will get replaced by GTA 6. But Xenoblade fans can now freely talk about it without getting our posts dogpiled by a highly active and highly vigilant group of pessimists that need to make fans know their love for the game is not welcome. It’s not that an overwhelming number of people hated the game, it’s that a small number of trolls made an overwhelming number of posts - for every positive post made by an optimistic fan, a pessimist will make approximately 97 negative posts to counter. So even if the optimists outnumber the pessimists by 20, the pessimists are posting several times the volume.

TL;DR - the game wasn’t too far ahead of its time, it’s that the cynical pessimists are busy attacking other things instead. Remasters aren’t interesting enough to them. But remasters are interesting to the more optimistic fans.

Loved on Wii U.
Loving even more this time on switch. Everything looks better (character models!), plays better, QoL was amazing.
Quick cooldown is a game changer, much more engaging combat on foot. I am having fun even with classes I used to dislike.
Also, props to getting on 13Gb. Im now on a stage where I already deleted all big games to fit my SD card, and im really struggling to let the games I want there, so and every Mb counts.
It is now on my top tier of switch games, along BOTW and TOTK

It's definitely a masterpiece. Unlocking the Jet Mode has added a completely new dimension to the game for me, akin to unlocking the Skells and, later, their flight module: it completely changes the way you traverse the world, making it extremely enjoyable just to go from point A to point B. Prior to that I was getting a little burnt by the usual teleport just to visit some character, or location, speak/battle/collect and get back to the city to complete the mission and get the reward. The routine of getting a mission, popping up the map, teleporting, metting the objectives, popping up the map again, teleporting again, etc. after dozens of hours and side missions was starting to bore me. But with the Hraesvelg jet mode its so fast and enojable to get to any part of the world that now I travel that way to almost every destination, even if it takes longer that teleporting, just for the joy of it. Also, I can spend hours just flying, passing down arcs or big enemies, making loopings and just enjoying the beautiful world from my Hraelsvelg cockpit, to the point the game has almost become a flight simulator for me.

To point some small flaws, I would just mention:

- There are TOO MANY side missions. Even if many of them are really meaningful and imply very interesting ethical/political debates, I would have prefered that they ditched some of the simpler ones. I know that these are optional, but you never know if one side mission is going to be awesome or meh and, since there is so much content, I've came to a point where the "meh" side missions have become a non-enjojable step that I try to complete as fast as possible just to get rid of them.

- Having collission detection with the mobile objects in NLA (cars, helicopters, skells...) would have been nice. I still don't get used to be walking through a road with my characters and being passed through by a car with no consecuences =P

- Just for the wishlist, I would have loved if they had included something like simple "races" or speed challenges to add a little more variety to the gameplay, since all the "ingredients" are there to make it work. From time to time I find myself thinking how cool would have been to have a character that challenges you to go from point A to point B with the Hraelsver Jet Mode, or with the Skells' vehicle forms, or even walking, in a limited time. It's something very simple to implement that would add a lot of variety and enjoyment to the experience. You could have even included "pass through the rings" like challenges, ala Starfox/Pilotwings!

- Oh and, like in Breath of the Wild, I would have loved to have missions to rebuild/finish the construction of NLA: I can't stop thinking on those unfinished roads and how cool would be to see the city grow and change phisically with new roads and buildings popping in the "free" space left.

So these are my 4 main critizisms with the game. Aside from that, I love every inch of it. So much, that I'm already feeling the need to stop writing and get hands on with my Switch =D

P.S.: Edited because I just came across with another of these filler missions I mentioned previously... A guy in North LA ("Julian" I think) just made me go FOUR TIMES back and forth between him and a concrete insect colony on Cauldros to kill first 1, then 2, then 4 and then 6 enemies of the same type. I killed and go back to him just to get asked to do exactly the same thing over and over again. I do not deny that the side-story reasons for it can be interesting, but gameplay wise, making someone go back and forth over and over again is a terrible decision. Wouldn't have been better just to desing the mission in any other way? For example, just update the mission on the go telling me to go to a diferent nearby point to kill the increased individual number of enemies, but not forcing me to either travel dozens of miles back to the guy who requested it or pop in and out the minimap and teleport over an over again... Good that there are so many awesome side missions, but the design of the lesser relevant ones is truly anoying...

Very unfortunate that I had to quit this game most of the way through. I no longer have access to my own game (which I purchased on a family member's account) unless I want to pay for an entirely new copy. This is all thanks to the 20.0 update which removed the previous family sharing system we used for 8 years.

If I'm not mistaken, you can go back to the old system. Go to your icon on the home Menu > User settings > Online License Settings > Set “Use Online License” to "On".

I haven't done it myself, but this should in theory revert your system to the previous method of sharing digital games.

I finally done it yesterday !
I've got my flight Skell Module after the last 30 hours of gameplay during the last 3 days which brought my playtime over the 100hr mark ....

That first flight going to the objective, feeling like you're on top of the world, hearing the arranged version of Don't Worry, coming back touring everywhere in NLA. One of the peak video game moments of my life !

Though that's technically the 2nd time I've done it, once on WiiU, but it feels so distant that I might've forgotten that moment honestly.

Edit :

@Zarkho

You basically described my most hated quest because of the repetitive sequences asked of the player and yet it also has some of the most interesting implications lore wise with the Orphe people and their Ovah. 

Though, I sometimes even found the mild side quest sometimes fun enough depending on the writing since I do find a lot of these NPCs to be funny at times. So many good tid bits of funny writing if you dig into most of the NPCs dialogues in between chapters.

Also as a tennis player, what's happening to these courts thanks to the Orphe is sacrilegious lol

Hahaha! Congrats! If you like the flight, you have to get the reward from Liesel 2nd affinity quest. As I mentioned, it totally changes the experience and gives traversingng the world a complete new dimension. It's plain fun just to go here and there for the joy of it! Specially if, like me, you like to "challenge" yourselve with things like passing through arcs, under big enemies, across gorges... It's awesome!

Regarding the boring/repetitive side quest, it wouldn't be an issue for me if it weren't for the absurd amount of them. With just the good ones you would already have dozens, maybe hundreds, of quality side missions. But since you have so many of them, going through the less brilliant ones sometimes becomes a tedious chore more than a joy  =P

In any case, the game remains brilliant for me. It has become one of my all time favourites. Althoug I'll always be disappointed with the way they tried to close the story in the new ending... Not only for the implications themselves but for all the still unanswered questions that are left...

Good that at least, despite having invested 160 hours already, I have several hundred hours of post-game content and enternainment!

Heard about that since I haven't seen Liesel Skell "Jet mode" yet but I'm in no hurry to get there really. One quest at a time haha.

I also found my new funniest side quest yesterday with the "Herbivores, Unite !". Gosh I love how they managed to make the interactions between the different alien races be so full of life ... And tribulations lol. 

Also no having much clue to the new ending because I'm not there yet. Them ending on some unanswered questions or lefting a lot to interpretation is really something they've done for a while now, so I won't be surprised there haha

Though if it's slightly similar to Future Connected in spirits, then it just points out for the future of the series where we'll get those answers instead ;)

Unfortunately, it's not the case. Before the update, they claimed you could opt out of the update, but that wasn't accurate. What is available is an alternative software management system that has the same loss of functionality.