I'm in chapter 3. Playing via Yuzu emulator, I found a version that runs (mostly) full speed with a shader pack I downloaded that has 18k+ shaders in it.
There's way too many grind mechanisms/systems in place. You got exp for levels, you got CP for class level exp, you got mastery exp (so you can put one classes attacks on another class), and then you got a separate exp to unlock new classes entirely. And you also got SP for a whole separate skill tree, not gonna spoil it. Then you got crafting/grind materials for gems, then you got side quests for collectipedia cards, and colony/region affinity levels, and no telling what else unlocks later on, IMO this is already way too much, and I'm assuming it's just the tip of the iceberg. It's the type of game for people who enjoy putting check marks in boxes, and filling bars and trees up. The combat is OK, and that's really the only reason I'm still even playing it, but most everything else I take issue with, including the English voice acting, everyone sounds like a cuck islander (British). There's also way too many cutscenes, and I've skipped about 1/2 of them.
I'm temped to just download cheat codes to put check marks into boxes and fill affinity bars up, and unlock the classes/masteries, but on the other hand I've always said that if I'm gonna do something like this, then I might as well just stop playing the game at all. I'm still sort of undecided about whether the combat is honestly good enough to outweigh the game's shortcomings in other areas (IMO). If too many more additional grind systems get implemented, I think I might as well just stop playing now.
Overall, it's worse than XBC1 for me. I thought the areas/exploration was better in XBC1 (so far), and there were less grindy systems in place, I also liked being able to get weapons/armor drops and upgrades, so that's one grind system I do like is gear drops which aren't a thing in XBC3. You were rewarded in XBC1 if you could take out that higher level mob and get a loot box from it in the form of higher tier weapon/armor upgrades, so there was actually a point in trying to fight stuff above your level, in XBC3 there's literally no point in trying to fight something 10 or 20 levels above you, as there's no real reward for it even if you do win. There was a unique/boss crab in a cave in chapter 2 that was higher level, and I managed to beat its ass at like level 16, it was a slough, lots of rip-revives, but I won by the skin of my teeth. In XBC1, I would have been rewarded for my efforts with a shiny loot box that had loot at least 1-2 tiers higher than the junk I was using. That's the one and only time I've tried that in XBC3, because it's just not worth the effort in this game.
