But for every step forward, Xenoblade takes one shaky half-step back. Item management is a royal pain in the ass—an unforgivable blunder for a game that seems to have tens of thousands of unique items. You can't equip new weapons at a shop. You can't optimize your characters' equipment.

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And the user interface often feels like it's there more to hinder than help. One example: A marker saying "Story Memo" will hover at the top of your screen whenever you're not in the area the main storyline wants you to be in. Since there are many, many sidequests to plow through and locations to explore, you'll see this marker quite a bit. And it never goes away. No matter how many buttons you mash or controllers you break.

The ultimate and unfortunate truth is that Xenoblade is constantly at odds with itself. It's dissonant. Its strong points are so strong that they make its weak points look even worse, like when LeBron James played on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Xenoblade's aesthetic qualities—its world, its music, its spectacular views and splendid landscapes—deserve better than its tepid combat system and irritating characters.

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Of course, that's all easy to ignore if you're the type of RPG fan who likes to spend hours and hours immersed in gorgeous landscapes, running through sidequests and hunting down powerful monsters for sport. This is a game for the many people who just want to dive into their televisions and get lost in the bridges and waterfalls of a wonderful world. And it's a world worth exploring. I just wish you could explore it as somebody else.