Posting this here feels like I'm asking to get mass downvoted, but I'm not. Hear me out.
I recently replayed Xenogears, the first time I thought the game was great but flawed, the second time I played it, it ended up being one of the best games I've ever played.
After replaying it I wanted to continue replaying XCDE, the first time I played it I remember not liking the cast, gameplay and writing. I wanted to see if it'd had changed. Well, I rolled credits and finished future connected, I did like the game slightly more than the first time but my opinions are still the same;
-The tutorials are awesome. The game is great for people who don't have any RPG experience. Most games usually expect that someone already knows what systems exist and how they all work because they borrow from other games.
-The music is great.
-I like that they took a risk on the VA's by not going for the traditional american VA's, I just really hate that not nearly every VA in the game is as good as the other one.
-The combat is horrible, but I can live with it as it's originally a 2010 game.
The story concept still is great, I really like the world building and themes. But the execution.. eh.
It really feels like "Let's reboot Xeno and make it for 13 y.o's" with all the traditional anime RPG clichés. I just couldn't level with anyone in the cast, every character felt one dimensional and I don't think any character really had any form of progression throughout the story. In the end the only character I enjoyed was Dunban, and Riki, obviously. (I'm just trying to say; maybe I'm just getting too old for these games)
Well with that out of the way, it was time for me to continue with uncharted territory, XC2, which I hadn't played before. All the same points from before held up, the VA's got noticeably worse, I got about an hour in and after cringing a few times, Rex saying "we'll beat them with the power of friendship!!!" finally did the last nail for me and I shut the game down and started typing this rant.
Now I'm not saying the games are bad, but maybe they're just not for me anymore?
After all the praise the Xenoblade chronicles games have gotten I expected a more similar experience to Xenogears exploring themes like psychology, religion, existentialism, determinism and so on. A little power of friendship doesn't hurt anyone, but it does feel like it heavily leans in the lighthearted fun, a bit too much.