Xenoblade 2 has design problems. Overall I still like it quite a lot, but I can't disagree with the criticisms raised.
December is nearing its end and I've not finished any of the games yet.
Horizon Zero Dawn
I'm almost done with the DLC, then onto blasting through the remaining main story quests. The DLC I think is the best part about the game. It's challenging but not annoying, and gives you some new things to play with and unlock. Mixes linear sections with the open world nicely. After the DLC I have started to appreciate the combat even more, it's really fun as far as open world combat goes.
I usually love story and dialogue. But whenever a side quest giving NPC in Horizon starts talking my eyes glaze over and I miss all the details. I'm not sure what it is, I feel like they overuse those sci-fi proper nouns to refer to things that the game hasn't properly established. The way they talk is half modern, half faux wise tribal elder. Plus all of the side quests are some variation on: go here kill this. I find it hard to find any attachment to these side stories. The lore is more interesting than what's going on in the game.
Even though I don't think I love it as much as the general consensus, the game has something that makes me able to play it for 6 hours straight. Nearing 90 hours, should be able to finish this.
Robotics;Notes Elite
Now about 20 hours in. I'm just enjoying being with these characters and the world is well realised. Not as immediately gripping as Stein's Gate, but I'm not going to cast judgement yet. Probably won't finish before January, but I'd like to.
Shin Megami Tensei 5
70 hours in and still loving it. Some boss fights have gone down to the wire and been incredibly close. It's balanced in such a way that you feel powerful and have a range of tools, but so do your enemies. Any regular encounter can be a life or death situation, so you need to learn when to go all in and when to fold. At the rate I'm going plus everything else, very doubtful I'll finish this for Deadline December.