Got Xenoblade 3. I'm a bit more than 3 chapters in, so I don't know major story spoilers, but I've got a few things to say, already.
I think this is generally a step sideways for the series and reinforces my opinion that Monolithsoft needs to put the franchise on a serious diet. Having two different factions, one with timed cooldowns and another with landed autoattack cooldowns which you want to come off cooldown together so you can use them in Fusion arts to charge your interlink so you can use your Ouroboros form, combined with a class system which is for all intents and purposes a JOB system from Final Fantasy Tactics and you have a game which is right on the ragged edge of becoming an unplayably crunchy mess.
This is massive game design heresy for 2022.
You know what's also major game design heresy for -insert current year-? Unapologetically heteronormal pairings. Ouroboros is unquestionably a marriage metaphor because it involves two characters becoming one composite being (albeit briefly). One character is from Keves, one character is from Agnes, and all of the pairings are preset male-female. Romeo and Juliet reference? Yes, absolutely. How Monolithsoft snuck this out, got a bestseller of the year slot, and SJWs haven't screamed bloody murder is beyond me. And it is amazing.
Story? Like I said, I'm not far into it, but I can comment on a few things.
On my first start of the game, I despised the intro. Then I decided to restart the game at a higher difficulty rather than tweak it in the menu and I was amazed at all the foreshadowing I had gotten far enough in to get. I still think it's a rough intro, but it replays better than it first plays. Also, kudos for having the steamy shower scene there to make a point. Usually, it's just vapid titillation.
Eunie and Ethel having boob windows in their outfits, however, IS vapid titillation. But after XBC2, I am absolutely positive no one is going to side with me in that complaint. I mean, did you see Pyra's outfit?
As a last note, children in adult bodies is a really, REALLY hard concept to pull off, and thusfar XBC3 has done it rather well. So well that I think I'll add the "clone child in an adult body" trick to my writing repertoire, as it lets you get away with a cat-girl named Mio (only a few letters off Meow) still be a compelling character, and practically all the guffaws of strange dialogue or localization gaffes can now be chocked up to the characters not being as articulate as an adult character would be because...they're not adults.