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sc94597 on 14 April 2015
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Hynad said:

1. Yeah, and my point is that it isn't the only 7th gen RPG that did that. It didn't reinvent anything. It took a lot of what was done right, and did a melting pot of it all. It felt great playing a RPG that brought back elements from what made the 4th and 5th gen so great, but it isn't the only game who did that. Ni No Kuni, for example, brought back many of those elements. It is true that a lot of the JRPG series were seemingly toned down during the seventh generation. The focus wasn't on that genre nearly as much as it was during prior generations. For many reason. Xenoblade brought a lot of these beloved elements together to make a compelling ensemble, but it didn't reinvent a genre. Many other games did just what you're describing. That they were praised as much as Xenoblade or not is an other story.

2. As for what you say about FF XII, I don't think you know the meaning of he word you're using. Because that game was highly polished. It ran prefectly, controlled perfectly, didn't have loading issues, no glitches or bugs to write about. and its visuals were top-notch for its time and in fact still look good to this day. And the game is also quite extensive in its exploration aspects. 

3. One game you should take a look at is Dragon Quest VIII. That game did everything right when it comes to taking 4th or 5th gen JRPGs beloved JRPG tropes and modernizing them for the modern age. It's a 6th gen game, so it may not fit with your narrative. But it still illustrates the fact that Xenoblade didn't reinvent anything. That doesn't make it a bad game, and that's certainly not what I'm saying either. 

1. My main argument was that they weren't succesful (in making open-worlds a standard) despite their attempts. Xenoblade was successful because the focus of the game was on this feature and it did it well. Reception is important in determining whether or not something is revised. 

2. I contextualized the statement "highly polished" with "as" and "in that area." I never meant to imply that the game isn't (as) highly polished in general, or even highly polished in that area. Just not as much as Xenoblade. 

3. Dragon Quest VIII is one of my favorite JRPG's. And I agree 100%. It perfected and modernized the classic JRPG formula. Xenoblade on the other-hand brought relevant a new type of JRPG. It was thought that the JRPG genre could not have vast, open, and monoscaled worlds and Xenoblade showed that it was false, hence reinventing the genre. Maybe not in every way, but in that way in particular, yes. I'm not saying it is the standard of JRPGs, but I would say that because of its critical success JRPGs have been moving toward more open-world gameplay formats with horizontal questing, and hence recreating a standard.