Xenboblade 2: Throw a few more bob at us for the dlc

Despite my laughter I am very excited at the prospect of more people getting into Xenoblade, so I hope they work for you Mas. I really do think XC2 is excellent, despite its flaws. (No sandwich scene in XC2 either. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.))

I was discussing XC2 with somebody on the Back Page Discord recently, and came to something of a revelation about it.  We were basically talking about how it has a whole bundle of flaws, including lousy tutorials, dubious female character design, mixed quality of characterisation, and a fighting system that, politely, takes a while to get your head around... and yet it's in my top 25 games of all time.

Then it hit me.  All of these things are front-loaded.

If you play five hours of XC2, most of that will be spent running around Argentum, which is the antithesis of the great big open worlds that are the best things about the series; having duff tutorials thrown at you; meeting Pyra, who looks stupid and isn't the best character; and struggling to grasp the combat.  Thirty hours later, and that all fades into the background as the minority of the game.  The amazing world takes over, and you start to understand the combat system and it becomes really fun!

This does mean that XC2 has a really off-putting start, and if you quit the game early on, you'd be perfectly justified in thinking that it's bobbins.  XC1 does this much better (Colony 9 > Argentum, Fiora > Pyra, you're given an obvious and human motivation early on), and I feel like that's almost required reading for XC2.  My fondness for the series for the series kept me ploughing on and I ended up loving the game, but that's only because I'd loved XC1 beforehand.  XC2 is not the game to convert a Xenoblade newbie.

Something to keep in mind maybe Mas.  Of course, it might be different for everyone, but so many people have bounced off XC2 and I think I finally understand why.

That does sound like most JRPGS though being slow to get going. And due to lengths, it ends up being about 5hrs to get going.

I'd say it's worse than most, and it's a particularly jarring differential because XC1 did the opening so well. That said, if you're aware of it, you might be all set from there!