PixlBit

It's all Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom - Prince's Edition on my Xbox Series S right now. I am hooked like a Sega Bass Fishing Bass. 

Fortuneately this is on Game Pass because I'm not sure I would have tried this for money after failing at the first game. 

This is really like three games in one: action RPG, city building sim, and RTS. It's mostly action RPG though and a good one. The battles work really well now. You can concentrate on your chosen character's attacks and just let your two AI controlled characters go nuts or switch from character to character. In between battles, you can set up their equipment. The Higgles are all around you in battles and can be activated whenever they are ready to do their special attacks. It's strategic but also very active. I love it and have used all the various special attacks.

City building is really simple. You build many buildings that give you boosts in gameplay, new equipment or matterials used for battle or side quests. I alternate between going for the main quest and going after the many side quests and errands. In between, I do city building by upgrading buildings and workers' skills, researching new techniques, recruiting new workers and placing them according to their skills, and upgrading the castle to allow for more space for income. It's well designed and easy to manage. 

Then there are the RTS battles. These are special events scattered across the world that put you into a battle map where you control yourself and four squads of soldiers. You can rotate them around you as you venture forward and attack enemy armies and their fortifications. You also have special powers attached to your troops that can call down air strikes or other massive attacks or boosts. These troops level up as you use them. You have to watch your overall level of force which gets used up by calling reinforcements, using powers or rebuilding fortifications for your own use. But it reaccumulates over time. It's fun. Battles are usually short, and you don't do them that frequently. It's kind of a perfect ocassional distraction from the main game. 

There are also special mazes throughout the world that work a little differently from the main game. When you enter them you can't save and a timer starts that ratchets up the difficulty as you go. Mazes can be either only 3 levels or 10 or more with a boss battle at the end. Along the way you gather orbs which you use to open chests or pay to adjust the difficulty timer. I've discovered that it's wise to keep the timer high on difficulty until you hit the boss and then maybe turn it down, if you can, by one. This way you gather the most orbs and still beat the boss. I've beaten bosses above my skill level but not too much above. They are usually long grueling battles too. 

I'm nearing the last chapter in the main story. I've stopped to do side quests for a while, but I imagine I will finish the main story next week sometime. Then I'll see about achievements.