Probably used a bunch of code that was or wasn't used during the development of a first game. Release this year seems reasonable. I mean XCX is already out for 2 years.

Good point about Mario. It'll probably be Japan this year. I suspect Splatoon 2 will be their main summer game.

I believe XC2 will come out this year. All I can say is I can't wait.

The game engine is probably the same that they used in XBC:X, which makes this not unusual at all, considering Monolith's record on the Xenosaga games, and that was when they were a smaller studio.

Xenosaga EP 1: Released Feb 2002 (Japan)
Xenosaga EP 2: Released Jun 2004 (Japan)
Xenosaga EP 3: Released July 2006(Japan)

Although Xenosaga EP 2 was pretty bad, so hopefully quality is not affected (they have better game mechanics in the Xenoblade series, so probably not.)

The way they kept insisting Zelda wasn't delayed.

From what we have seen I would say it certainly looks like the X engine, though upgraded in a not insignificant way with better lighting, a better grass solution, etc. 

It could be that they had a team working on XC2 since midway through XCX's development too, so it's not as fast as it appears.

Also, think you messed up your XS dates :P

I am pretty sure Xenoblade 2 is an outsourced game. It looks like it was developed by a generic JRPG house from
NAMCO.

To be fair, 1) BotW was pushing its hardware absurdly hard and 2) at least part of the reason for that specific delay was the development for multiple platforms, both the demands of said development and wanting it at launch of the Switch.  So I'm not writing it off until we see what they show at E3.

No it isn't and if you would for just an instant look beyond a 6x9 inch portion of characters dang heads you would see the overall aesthetic of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is remarkably similar to the original game's.  Even clothing and armor designs aren't very far off. 

And we've seen one and a half minutes of the game, so maybe don't be smugly dismissive just yet.