Absolutely. I watched a playthrough of 2 because it was too rare to find around 3’s announcement, so I thought I’d never get to play it.

Then, because I don’t engage too closely, I missed NEARLY EVERY connection to the previous games unless they hit me over the head with it. I sure love a breakdown video after I’m done playing!

I’ve never played 2, but I agree with slimerancher. Three is tops, then the first one, and XCX last. This isn’t a knock on XCX. It’s just the more they iterate on the formula, the better it gets. And every entry has a more wonderful story than the previous one except XCX in my opinion.

That said, the story of XCX is still great. It’s just not a step forward like XC2 (which I watched a full play through of in the lead up to 3’s release).