Adding to the Live A Live discussion...
Last week I was fighting off some kind of virus and didn't feel like playing games so I only got back to it Saturday (as I mostly felt ok Saturday).
I was working on the Prehistory chapter and honestly, I loved it. The story was pretty funny (I mean Gori the Gorilla farts and it blows up on the fire charring them all) and sweet ... and the end boss was pretty solid. I finished it Saturday night. Even though there was no spoken language, somehow they told what I thought was a very understandable story that I could really easily retell to anyone interested.
Sunday I went ahead and my final three choices were The Wild Wild West, The Near Future, and The Distant Future. I opted for The Near Future as I love big robot stories. That seemed very well fleshed out. The world was pretty interesting, the concept was great, and the enemies as the story unfolded got interesting. I also like how in most battles you had a leader and taking out the leader ended the battle. Overall, it was fun with a great opening video and the credits (like the caveman/prehistory) were well worth watching.
Next... I'm caught between the west and distant future... these seemed like the most potential to wow me... I'm leaning towards the west.
Overall to me the worst so far has been either Imperial China (somewhat bland) or Present Day (finished it in well under an hour, maybe even under 30min... but really fun and inventive).
I'm glad I bought the game, even though now it means I'm waiting a bit longer to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (which my copy showed up Saturday).