I dont necessarily agree with the opening bit (I would argue that in the last 5-10 years weve seen a lot of JRPGs that are targeted to mainstream audiences, I think the dearth of JRPGs was mostly a 00s thing), but yeah the biggest issue I had with this game is how many systems it has, and how so many them end up feeling useless after a long time.
Like I forget the exact mechanic, but theres the thing where you build up your meter and do big combos with your blades, and once you master that, theres little reason for you to do pretty much anything else. Fights become about filling time in order to get to that point where you can pull off big combos.
That isnt to say that those other mechanics become entirely irrelevant. Like Im sure there are super bosses that require you to have that more technical control over all the systems, but for just getting through the game that one mechanic just sort of dominates over the (too many) other systems.
Xenoblade Chronicles X had kind of the same problem, where for the start of the game your essentially playing the same combat as Xenoblade Chronicles, and then you unlock the Gundam and all of that just kind of goes out of the window. There are a few fights that require you to be not in your mobile suite, but not many, and you really have no incentive to bother getting out (except again, for specific super bosses).
I feel like this is just a problem with the way Monolithsoft is approaching the design of these games, assuming More is always More when it isnt. You see that philosophy even in the story (you could cut about 1/3rd of XC2s story and it would be tighter and better) and in the weird decision to have Gacha mechanics for Blades in spite of it not being a Gacha game (Like I dont understand why you would have them at all, if you arent making money from them, Gacha loot drops arent fun!).
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