I think it's time to write down some of my impressions after playing for about 25 hours. I won't write them as I did in the OP since it will take a lot of time that I could use to actually play Xenoblade.
Some things that have happened in the story:
-Had to fight a huge spider three times because didn't understand the "change the future" mechanic well.
-Colony 6 got invaded and apparently many of its inhabitants were killed/eaten/abducted
-Got a new party member: Sharla. Who is kind of in love with Reyn: "Oh, Reyn, you totally look like Gadolt/you totally remind me of Gadolt, by the way, did I mention Gadolt and I were going to get married?"
-There's more than one mechon with a face... and the new one talks a lot.
-Had to prevent that the death of a Nopon kid called Pama because some adults thought it was a good idea to tell a small kid that a spirit in a river was his friend... seriously, wtf.
-A bunch of mechons with face appeared, and "Metal Face" revealed he can talk too... same voice that evil guy with claws from the tutorial. I'm kind of disappointed. BTW, I think that he didn't speak in the first battle because he just couldn't.
-Dumbass and wiser and older Axel Rose appeared again.
-I was right: mechons with faces are hums transformed into/or maybe they are a part of this mechons, and hums are physically behind the masks. I also think Fiora may be a new and powerful mechon... if I interpreted correctly what I saw in that cutscene. I have no evidence of this but I got the impression that hums or entia are the ones that are building mechons.
-Got to explore these grasslands... don't remember the name. They look spooky during the day and impressive at night. There are some secrets there but I got tired of exploring the place.
-Had to fucking go all over the place to pass a coming of age test so I could gain passage to the interior of the Bionis... had to fight a miniboss too. And this fucking quest was useless because in the end the elevator didn't work...
-Explored the interior of the Bionis... the Titan is still alive. You can hear it breath D:
-Next area is called something something Forest... but it's a freaking jungle full of monsters. Liked the place; also I got to see more about the story. Met Melia and Alvis and got a new power for the Monado.
-Reached frontier Village. This place is huge and kind of charming. Met Riki, and I hope that he's the last party member since I don't like to have that many inactive party users.
Things that I like s far:
-The huge amount of QoL improvements over the genre: never losing progress, being able to save whenever I want, all party members gain experience whether they are part of the fighting party or in the reserves. I totally approve what Monolithsoft did with this game.
-Enviroments/areas are amazing. There's always a place to go and something to do. also, the raining looks pretty cool. I imagine that at the time when the game came out the weather changes were a big deal.
-Some monsters are very impressive and they make you feel insignificant in this world.
Things I'm not very fond of:
-Combat is not exactly my cup of tea... there are too many new mechanics that are confusing. You eventually manage to find the perfect way to take advantage of it (which is a strength of the combat system tbh) . I'd still rank it with a solid 8 because even though I don't like it that much, it's objectively pretty effective.
-The inventory system is a fucking mess. It's pretty good that every time a new party member joins your inventory expands, but I have tons of armor pieces already and let's not talk about gems, minerals, etc.
-Sidequests: So far I've encountered three sidequests that are kind of interesting, but the rest are MMORPG levels of bad.
-The game looks pretty ugly and on top of that I don't like the character designs. It's good that I can change their appearance, but I don't like the armours available either.
I'm taking a break for a couple of days, I'm kind of burned out already.