Xenoblade DE's Battle System is UNDERRATED! 

its usually 2 fans that think 1s combat is bad because 2 seems really complicated but is actually really simple and gives you a big dopamine hit as well as a win condition that lets you ignore everything the enemy is doing until you get to super bosses and thats just get 8 orbs then chain attack. 1 makes it so you actually have to fight your enemy and pay attention to everything and react during the fight. chain attacks dont really get busted until basically end game making it so you have to actually engage in the mid fight to take down the enemy. while xenoblade 1 looks simpler than 2 xenoblade 1 forces you to be more aware of all its system rather than just chain attack

One thing 1 has going for it compared to the other ones (at least for me) is that even though it has easily the weakest postgame, it feels more replayable. Like as good as the other systems are, they start pretty slow and feel more focused on fighting bigger enemies, where as 1 gets really good real quick and never stops being fun for the entierity of the main campaign. Most of the time in the other games (excluding fr), I just avoid normal enemies since they are very easy and not as fun to fight compared to UM’s and boss fights. In 1, normal enemies feel like actual threats and fighting them never really feels like a drag, at least to me. This is very noticeable to me in the usage of chain attacks, where in 1 they fit very naturally when fighting normal monsters, where in the other games, chain attacks are only an element of the gameplay when fighting big monsters

One thing I like from X1's combat system over 2 (the sort of fixed it in 3) is that normal enemies don't take much of your time. Considereing how massive all these games are, that's a huge deal. In X1 is fun to kill every new enemy cause you know it won't take you 5 min.

Wait, WHAT!? People think the combat is the WORST PART OF THE GAME!? HOW!? Xenoblade has a really good tutorial system, giving the player control of a character with two types of Artes, one straight damage and the other a buff - if the player chooses the damage option, the enemies will take massive damage but that alone won't be enough to kill them, making the battle take longer, however if the player chooses to buff the allies, they can do full damage and use their own damaging Artes to shorten the battle length. And the tutorial tells players about both effects and gives them three battles t the player get accustomed. When the game gives the player control over Shulk, more tutorials show up teaching about bonus effects and the importance of positioning, then places the player in two battles back to back to try and follow the instructions. The CPU will control Reyn, who will gain aggro from the enemies with his artes, then the player gets behind the enemy and uses the Back Slash Arte to deal the damage, while Shulk continues to auto attack and fill up the Talent Gauge, which in this case, is another damaging Arte to give the player a chance to try again in case of failure without having to wait for the normal Arte's cooldown. After those two mandatory fights, the player is placed in a field full of low level enemies that don't attack until you initiate combat, giving the player all the chances they need to get accustomed to the combat in a safe environment, meaning now the ball is on the player's court. If people don't understand the combat of Xenoblade after this segment, it's a Jeff Room (from Metroid Dread) situation, where the player is ignoring the game written tutorials and opportunities the game presents to learn the mechanics by first hand experience, and then blaming the game for it. The tutorials are on point in Xenoblade (much better than Xenoblade X's tutorials), it's entirely the player's responsibility to not screw it up by paying attention.

Banger video dude. Didn't know about the line icon for ether moves

Took me awhile to like Melia but since I started I can't change into anyone else

Amazing video. Loved every explanation

I wish more xc3 bosses were like D because he forces you to be wary of his blaze debuffs, regeneration buffs and blaze fields where you need to pay attention to what your team is doing the whole time

The combat is certainly not bad at all, i think it's pretty fun comparitively to the other games in the series, and i really like it. It's just that the Time Attack mode sucks and it's hard to push the combat system to it's full potential because there are no big enough challenges. That's the largest reason why people dislike XC1's battle system.

another thing i often see people complain about is that having arts on the dpad feels weird but the game was designed for the wii remote so it feels a lot more natural when playing on the wii version

I played Zenoblade 3 never touched the previous 2. I rented the game and put it back into my male box 3 hours later.... for me, Tales of Xillia, Tales of Arise, and white knight chronicles are just better imo. they start off fun and get better as the game goes on were as Z3 was slow and tedious early.

It's nia guy sava wow! I have heard all about you!😮

I see your points in this video, although I'd say undervalued instead of underrated. Especially since you pointed out how since Xenoblade 1 the combat has kept that initial framework in the numbered Xenoblade games. The main thing that heavily enforces your points about Xenoblade 3 is the fact that we can switch party members, although there is no need to since the AI is proficient in using Reaction Arts. Albeit as you mentioned, this makes Xenoblade 3 combat a lot more 'fluid' in the sense of the party working together, but with minimal effort or awareness of the situation due to the player.

I do not need convincing it is easily the least broken at the start of the 3 numbered games. I feel that you get away with way too much BS early on in 2 and 2 and 3 have too much chain attack cheese early on where most fights do not even play out unless you put 2 on custom difficulty/bringer of chaos or 3 on hard but then it feels less like "hard" but more like grind more mode. I would like to also say that the first game is the only one where the enemies can take advantage of chain attack as well which is what I thought Driver battles were going to be in 2 but they turned out to be just another enemy you can cheese with unintended battle exploits the developer seemed to be unaware they actually let in as a few of them got corrected in 3.

Can you tell me what your favorite game of all time is since you said XC1 is your 2nd favourite game? Lemme know I'm curious :D

I think I can appreciate more XC1 combat, like you said, I dislike the Shulk over reliance and other things. I still think I prefer 2 and 3 combat over 1, I can't say anything on X because I haven't completed it (the problem in X is that there is no tutorials) despite 2's tutorials being bad, I could at least understand better the combat.

I don't think visions as a mechanic are that unique to 1. All they do is tell you what art is being used, and who it will be used on. This information isnt hidden in 2 or 3. If you're skilled enough to recognize a dangerous art/talent/special, you will be able to act on it. The core gameplay loop of visions are still present in the later titles, but without the annoying parts, and without making people rely on one party member to react to them

Honestly 2 and X combat >>>> 3

I kind of understand your justifications for why the combat system is "underrated", but i don't get how any of what you said really makes the XC1 combat better that, for example, 3, in the ways you explained, and XC1 definitely does NOT have quite the most complex Xenoblade battle system.

The combat is by far the best part of the game, but sadly it's pulled down by garbage gem crafting, frustrating affinity system, and a silly number of dull side quests at times being necessary to keep up with the level range of the main quest.

Also, wdym when you said XC2 has the best combat system that nobody likes?!?? XC2's combat systems are very beloved by more experienced players, (A.K.A., the ones that didn't give up on the game right away because of the awful tutorials.) but the aforementioned inexperienced players often do hate on it, because of how poorly explained it is.