The first thing I want to notice as the gameplay demo starts is that the weather and time UI seems like it was ripped straight from XCX, and the minimap takes up a good chunk of the screen. While the UI elements all work together, it feels like it was just copied over from XCX, and we may see some changes to the layout, sizing and style of these elements in the finished game. At the end of the demo, it was mentioned that this dev build doesn't even have the English vocals in it yet, and there are still months of improvements and polish left to come. The game is likely completed at a large scale, but now the devs can focus on refining gameplay and aesthetics.

Menu Options

Opening the menu shows a very different menu style to what we saw both in XC1, and in XCX. Character customization, Skip Travel, Quest Log, Item List, Encyclopedia (new Collectapedia, I assume) are still here, but there are two new options in the "Core Crystals" tab and a hidden tab. Again with the unfinished graphics, the artwork for Rex's second Blade, "Fudor", is a completely different style from the artwork for Rex and Pyra. Whether this is intentional or not, it seems there's definitely room for improvement here. Note also that the option on the bottom bar for "ZL - Change Character" is misspelled.

Under the Character Order screen, there seems to be enough room for at least 5, if not 6 interchangeable party members. On this screen is also the option to "Trade", which may simply be a rough translation to swap places between characters.

When selecting a Character for customization, there are 5 sub-menus represented by icons. In this demo the first and fifth icons are the same, with the first being titled "Enhance Arts". The remaining four were not looked at, and so we do not know what they are for.

Battle

And now to battling. Gone are the "enemy status" icons that would alert the player to whether an enemy is hostile or not, and if it is, how it will aggro (sight, sound, ether, etc.). This is a conscious decision meant so the player can discover and learn these patterns in their own play. Enemies do, however, show an elemental icon on their health bar when combat is engaged. It's hard to tell whether this shows that enemy's elemental affinity, weakness, or resistance.

The Arts bar has been reconfigured as well, moving from a selection of 8 signature skill to selection of 3 signature skill (shown in the lower right corner). The player also has the ability to switch between any one of 3 Blades (shown in the lower left corner), with each Blade having its own elemental affinity and set of Arts, including its own stats. Different Blades will also have different weapon types - swords, axes, chakram, etc. - which affects attack damage, block and crit rate, and attack speed, at least.

Speaking of Blades, each Blade has an elemental-based signature skill that can be used once enough Arts have been used to fill the signature skill gauge. This gauge can be overfilled to allow for multiple levels of damage. In the demo we see Pyra's level 1 skill being used, and later we see Kirim's level 3 skill being used.

One of the key differences in battle is that you now begin a fight with no Arts charge - even if you finished a fight just seconds before with fully-charged Arts. This heavily slows down combat and makes fights against near-same-level enemies much more tedious than in previous games, with the demo showing that most fights with a full party end with only one or two Arts being used. Different Arts charge at different speeds, and those speeds seem to correlate to number of attacks done, instead of damage.

Another twist to combat is auto-attacking. Like in the previous games, once initiating combat your player character will perform basic attacks automatically when they're within range of the enemy, but unlike previous games, they will not auto-attack while moving. On top of this change, auto-attacks will now deal more damage in successive hits, resetting after a few attacks. This makes positioning and timing much more important than in past games, since you can't reposition easily without sacrificing damage.

In the diamond-array of Blade choices in the bottom-left of the battle UI, the unused leftmost diamond displays three arrows pointing toward the center of the diamond, with an exclamation point overhead. Because this diamond only appears when there are multiple members in your party, it would suggest that this button is an AI command or toggle of some sort.

The party gauge seems to be back as well in the form of a three-segmented bar in the top left of the screen, and it does deplete slowly outside of battle. There was no affinity bonus shown during battles, and no party tension either.

Also returning are Arts combos like the classic Break>Topple, but with new wrinkles added. XC2 introduces "Launch", which can proc on Toppled enemies to throw them up into the air for a few seconds and deal greater damage. It was also hinted that there are follow-ups to a Launch status, which may lead to some long strings of Break>Topple>Launch>??? or even more. Doing this all on your own will be slow, though, and require advanced planning as you choose the proper Blades and then build up their gauge to even be able to switch to them during the heat of battle, but they seem even more powerful than the combos we've seen in the previous games.

Finally on the topic of combos, using a Blade's signature skill reveals a branching path of combos available to you in the top right of the screen. After using a Blade's skill, using another of yours or a party member's Blade's skill with one of the two possible follow-up elements will continue the combo, and offer a third layer for the combo as well. Successfully completing all three levels of the signature skill combo will result in doing incredible amounts of damage to the enemy.

The World

The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is based on a "sea of clouds" with massive beasts of various species and sizes that civilization thrives upon. The one the demo takes place on is a "giraffe" archetype with 4 legs and a long neck, lush flora and a booming lumber industry. Other beasts are home to different climates, including a snowy/icy beast, and other industries or purposes, like some military installations. The World-Tree visible on the horizon from the demo's area is massive even compared to the beasts, and at night ether can be seen swirling around the tree in a beautiful glow.

The landscapes in this game are as massive and breathtaking as we've come to expect from the series, but with no indication of how much verticality we'll be offered. While we can see the rising neck of the giraffe-like beast the demo takes place on, there's no mention or obvious way to go about climbing that.

Like in XCX, travel between zones is seamless, though we weren't able to see the party move from one of the world-beasts to another. One of the party characters - Nia - also has the ability to ride on top of her Blade, a large lion-esque creature, for increased travel speed. There is the chance that other party members will offer different travel options too.

And it should be mentioned that while the demo avoided saying whether this game is a direct sequel to the first Xenoblade Chronicles, the game does employ many of the same basic enemies - Bunnits, Caterpiles, Arachnos, Ardun/Armus, Feris, Eks, and even a Rotbart are fought in the demo. There are new enemies as well, but the heavy distribution of enemies from the original game suggest a strong connection.

What comes next

The real question, after everything we've seen, is what comes next. What do you want to see? What would you want clarification on?