i should probably play wild arms xf
back then i cared a lot of reviews and got discouraged but it really does sound interesting
If you look at IGN's negative review of Wild Arms XF, their main complaint was basically that the game was too hard for them. Some choice quotes:
And while the game attempts to give you control by allowing your characters to switch class at any time (assuming you're not currently in a battle), the resulting gameplay just feels aggravating. When I originally played Final Fantasy Tactics, I would switch classes from time to time, but a great deal of fun came from mastering a class and relying on that one character for very specific purposes. But in XF you have to switch most of your classes for every battle and it makes the game feel like class has no permanence or weight.
Wild Arms XF's class system is different than most multi-class games. When you switch class you automatically gain all of that class's abilities except for their ultimate passive (which you only get if you've reached max rank in that class). As you rank up, that class doesn't get more powerful, but instead, you unlock that class's abilities & passives for use with other classes. It's quite a smart solution - if you need a specific class to make a unique challenge easier, you can easily switch a character or two over to it, but as you progress in the game, you can create more and more powerful hybrid characters that can tackle a wide variety of problems easily.
Like for example, one of the first things I'll do with Clarissa (the main character) is to gain 47 CSP (that's maybe half a dozen battles or less) in her unique Dandelion Shot class so that I can then attach her Dandelion Shot equipment (a gun that gets more powerful with her LV & a powerful set of defensive equipment) & active abilities (some of the most useful in the game like an ability that costs HP to deal damage that ignore defenses & evasion) to any other class I want. Or with Felius, I'll just get 8 CSP in his unique class to unlock its active ability set which include a mid-range attack with 100% accuracy and then immediately switch him to Secutor for the Atk+ bonus & the ability to equip axes (high atk, low accuracy) & shields.
More troubling is the fact that some of the objective-based battles are infuriating. For example, an early battle in the game gives you six characters to defend an entire row of hexes from enemy penetration. If a single opponent steps on that side of the map, you instantly lose. Worse still is that every member of the opposing side belongs to a class with nearly unlimited movement range, and they have a force twice as large as your own. I wasted hours trying to best this battle, where a single mistake would let one guy through and ruin your previous twenty minutes of play time. It was absurd.
This is a tricky battle, but the reviewer failed to mention that the enemy "class with nearly unlimited movement range" is the Berserker class which can only move in straight lines. So all you have to do is stick a character in their path & you can easily stop them from moving very far at all, giving you plenty of time to massacre them.
Anyway, if you're willing to deal with a high difficulty level from the start (it gets easier as you go on as you abuse the class system), Wild Arms XF is an awesome Strategy/RPG. Great soundtrack too (like all Wild Arms games).