So, I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time...

[Nuvendil]

garywood said:

Nuvendil said:

Familiarity crosses the line into the territory of being an actual flaw when the implementation of convention becomes cliche.  I would say Xenoblade doesn't cross that line. 

The death of metal face scene tripped over that cliche line quite clumsily.

There's a difference between one scene being conventional or even cliche and a story, as a whole, being cliche.  Also, there are minor and major cliches, if you know what I mean.  A guy being spectacularly hoisted by his own petard is hardly cause to dismiss a whole story.  Lightning Returns is an example of a major cliche issue.  Evil god wants to consume our souls and is final boss.  Why?  Because JRPG.