Topic: The hangout space for people without Switch 2

I'm not supposed to be in this thread anymore but the 'what games took half your playtime' topic interested me. I have a spreadsheet and about 21 games together took half my Switch playtime:

• 'Cozy' games - Animal Crossing, Hello Kitty Island Adventure
• 2D Mario - Mario Maker 2, Mario Wonder
• NSO apps - snes, nes, gb
• Pokemon - Violet, Brilliant Diamond, Arceus
• Other RPGs - New Denpa Men, Dragon Quest Treasures
• Fitness Circuit ( an exercise game)
• Picross - Logiart, Piczle Cross Story of Seasons
• Rogue Legacy - both 1 and 2.
• Tetris 99
• Suika Game
• Awesome Pea 2 (a platformer I used to speed run)
• Zelda Echoes of Wisdom

The other half of my playtime included about 20 more rpgs and about 300 mostly shorter games.

@kkslider5552000, would you recommend the Xenoblade Chronicles series to someone like me who usually prefers turn-based combat? Granted, I'm gonna try out Pokémon Legends Z-A when that comes out this year and see if I like action RPGs, but I'm curious about what your answer will be. I probably won't get to Xenoblade Chronicles for a while since I haven't even started Dragon Quest XI yet, but if I end up skipping the Switch 2, that could potentially be a franchise I start getting into in the meantime.
Edit: I'm also asking about the difficulty. If I played any of the Xenoblade Chronicles games, would I have to grind a lot? Just curious.

Xenoblade is kinda MMO-ish in combat. Or a more exciting FFXII. In that specific regard, it feels not entirely different than the older Final Fantasy ATB system, where you still do menu based, turn based choices to attack but it still happens in real time (big difference being you can also move the whole time in battle which is relevant to the combat in certain ways). I think it works quite well personally.

I would say Xenoblade 1 is an incredibly easy recommendation, its about as solid and I think widely beloved as a non-Square Enix, non-Pokemon, non-Persona 5 JRPG gets. It's also not grind-y at all, especially if you do a decent amount of sidequests.

Xenoblade 2 can be awesome but its a much harder recommendation, because it triples down on anime aesthetics and tropes to mixed results, has a bad tutorial system that makes it far more difficult to get into and fully enjoy its combat system, and the sidequests can become an unfairly ridiculous time sink even by the standards of large RPGs. If you can get past all that there is a fantastic game underneath it all tho. But 1 is still a much easier recommendation.

@kkslider5552000, so you're saying that the combat of the Xenoblade series still has some aspects of turn-based RPG battling (the battle system you described sounded kind of like Pokémon Legends Arceus, which I haven't played but I've seen the whole game on YouTube). I had heard that the series is mote of an action RPG, but if so, this is great news for me. Is this battle system that still takes notes from turn-based RPGs also present in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, 3, and X (If I liked the story/gameplay of the first game, I would want to play the others for the full story)? The fact that it's not to grind-y is great news as well, especially with me over halfway through the Dragon Quest III remake right now (holy heck, the amount of grinding needed in that game is INSANE, imho). Also, I have already heard that Xenoblade 2 is more anime-ish than the others, and in a kind of campy way. If I doget into the Xenoblade Chronicles series, I'm actually kind of looking forward to that since I LOVE, like, every single anime I've ever watched in my life, which is a lot (some I like more than others, of course). For example, the Black Summoner anime/light novel's reviews are pretty meh overall, and I give the series a 10/10. But I guess that's besides the point, since I'm talking about Xenoblade 2 here.

I would say the other Xenoblades are different, often more complicated, takes on the same core gameplay 1 has.

Xenoblade 2 does continue certain aspects of 1's story, but the vast, vast majority of both games' stories are separate. They have connections but they're their own complete stories that can be enjoyed on their own. 3 apparently connects more with the previous two games in ways, but I don't entirely know to what extent. X didn't connect to any of them for the Wii U release, and I still actually do not know if the new stuff they added in the Switch version connected it to the numbered games or not.

@kkslider5552000, if the other ones are more complicated, that is good to know. I have heard that with the Definitive Edition's new Chapter 13, Xenoblade X does connect to the wider series now, but I haven't looked into story spoilers, nor do I want to. 3's dlc apparently connects all 3 games together, from what I've heard. Perhaps it would be best for me to look up a few YouTube videos of the battle systems in each game, just in case. Or try the first one from my local library, which does loan out physical Switch games. Or both! I do greatly appreciate your help though! I will make sure to at least try the first game at some point in the future! When I do, I will make sure to share my thoughts on this thread, or some other thread on the site! If I didn't play it at some point, it would honestly be a disservice to my number one Smash main (Shulk: I really like creating strategies with the Monado Arts).

@FishyS I've played 58 games on Switch 1, and I can get within a few hours of half with Balatro, Animal Crossing, Civilization VI and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Civ will make up the rest by the end of this week. If I hadn't seen this, I never would have imagined that four games would have play time equal to the other 54.

@Burning_Spear Having read many of your 'what are you playing this weekend' comments, it does not shock me that civ and balatro are way up there. 😆

@FishyS Yep, since last June, I've logged a combined 1,225 hours or so in Balatro and Civ. So nearly 100 hours a month on average. Two of the most addictive games I've ever played.