As I daid in my last post, XCX has a minority that reach the standard levels of unusual design seen in XC1.  Look at Sharla's armors.  Look at all but one of Fiora's robotic armors he quoted.  

XCX has a baseline that I would say is fairly down to earth with extremes that look unusual.  XC1 has a baseline that is already unusual and it ramps up from there to the outright bizarre.   I dare say all of those Sharla and a couple of those Fiora armors he posted are more strange looking than Rex's and of course uncontextualized.  

And as for why he went with Saito over other artists.  Could be his prior artists weren't available.  Could be he didn't think the art from XCX would mesh as well given its association with Xenogears, Saga, and X which are all mecha and scifi.  Or maybe he felt the more expressive characters would help address one of the major complaints agains XCX's characters (I feel these were exaggerated bug still hold some water).  Could be he just wanted to give something new a try.  Could be a combination of allof those (this is often the case). 

I would also be interested in knowing if the 3D art team for characters is the same as previously, they are half the equation here.  Especially in this instance.  Translating anime inspired art into 3D is an art unto itself.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back on this, I went out of town and visited family for labor day. 

What it all comes down to for me is does the product feel complete. Xenogears essentially in no way felt complete. Now, I do understand why people say it's their favorite game. the story is very, very ambitious, but the game that is supposed to lead the player through that story is all over the freaking place. Though in my eyes it's third, I see it in top (whatever) games lists above Xenoblade and X and am completely okay with it. I get it.

Xenosaga is an odd mess. Very cool cutscenes, but seemed to more want to be a movie than it did a game, especially since it never really seemed to mesh (gameplay and story). With art direction and gameplay drastically changing in each episode, it never really felt like it was one thing. Being that the developers were doing a lot of musical chairs during this time it's easy to see why as well. In the end, it was fine. Still one of the coolest games to get into if you have huge chunks of time you are willing to sit back and watch the game with gameplay sprinkled in from time to time. As a game though, probably the weakest entry due to how disjointed the games seem from themselves and gameplay from cutscenes were. 

Xenoblade Chronicles on the other hand seems like a full game built and executed with masterful precision. People have looked down on it for having worse graphics than Xenosaga, and worse (by which case they really mean less complicated) story than Gears and why they are right on both parts, it seems to be a lot more focused as a game than the other two series. It still had a similar emotional impact as Gears and offered much more as a GAME than Saga. 

Xenoblade X is another beast of ambition. As pretty much the photo negative of Saga in which the cutscenes took backseat to the gameplay, it still was able to do what Xenosaga wasn't by having them feel natural and fluid together. You'll also never get the rush of fighting a monster and hopping in and out of your Doll shifting in and out of Overdrive and Cockpit Mode just hammering out massive damage, especially if you put in the work to get the best Dolls and augments and the modes just go on and on and you're just ripping these limbs off of monsters at higher levels (sometimes greatly higher leveled) than your character. Mira is also just full of secret areas and monsters waiting to be found. As a game it feels constantly rewarding. There are tons of characters to add to your party and learn about through missions. Tons of aliens to add to your city to expand it, and some will even offer shops that give the player new styles of armor to wear. The graphics are easily the best in the series entirety (not just the Blade series but the entire Xeno universe) by a large margine, and while some people don't like the art direction, I absolutely love it and definitely see the connection between the art style of Saga (a retelling of Gears) and Blade X. The issue with this game would be its story, which only works as a part one as it only ever really deals with immediate threats, and never really concludes any bigger picture conflicts and dangers. If they just came out and said it was a part 1 or had part 1 in the title this simply would not be an issue, the issue now though is who knows if there will ever be another X, and if so there are a lot of cliffhangers that will probably irritate me. Still as a whole it felt like a complete game, yet again that felt focused and executed to its entirety. It never feels as though X was cut short like Xenogears, even if it feels like there's a part 2 waiting to be made. It completely succeeds at bringing an alien world to life, and allowing the player to explore all of that world. The music was another hit and miss thing due to trying something new and bringing Hiroyuki Sawano into the mix who is more well known for his anime music. Essentially there are some misses, and I mean like some REAL BAD misses in the soundtrack, yet there are also some REAL BIG HITS in the soundtrack as well. It literally has some of the best and some of the worst music in the Xeno franchise. 

You may be wondering if there are a lot of little missteps in X why is it tied for 1st with a game that doesn't have as many? Simply put because so much of it actually works, and when it does, it elevates X far above the original Blade. Xenoblade X is bigger and better than the original Blade on every single level, except for the few times and ways it isn't. That's why some days I'll sit back and think that the original Blade was easily the best, no real faults and everything executed well. But then I think to how much fun I've had playing X, how much I uncovered and the depth I've found in it and what it offered over Blade and think there's no way Blade beats X.

That's simply the best way I can explain why I would rank the series the way I would.

That's whas a interesting text to read. Glad you took the time and wrote. I have never played Xeno game bit I've wanted to play one. I planning on picking Xenoblade Chronicles 2 up. But the game that intrigues me the most is Xenogears. I've read a little about it's story, recarnation of Fei and that girl with a ducth name and Mother, the Zohar, Deus, Wave Existence and everything sound very interesting. I've also heard that the story's inspired by Freud, Jung and Niezscthe.