CP 1: Xenoblade Chronicles #1 Addendum

In all my excitement yesterday I actually forgot one of the main points I like about the game:

6) You get experience points not only for killing enemies, but also for

• exploring the world and finding new/hidden locations
• finishing certain missions
• gaining trophies 
• gaining new talents

Of course, it was the first point in that list which got me really excited. Huge beautiful world to explore, and besides the reward of just having fun looking around, the game even considers this important.  

As well as this, you are rewarded for collecting certain items as well (though with special items, not experience). And - solving certain missions influences the relationship you have with your team mates, the relationship you have with townsfolk, and the relationship some people have with each other.

The main thing is, there are so many things that reward you for playing the game to its fullest capacity, that my (story) progress is understandably somewhat slow. Admittedly, last night it went a little faster, since I'd emptied the first location of most of the currently available missions, but now that I've reached the Knee (as I said, a world being the body of a huge other being is just *really* awesome), I think I'll remain there for a while, and wait with story progression (which is easy, since the game also tells you exactly where and how much further you have to go for story progression - which makes it easy to avoid).