So Xenoblade X has an 84 on metacritix because there is too much to do and the world is too big?

[patronmacabre]

The game got very good scores, great even -- roughly the same as Fallout 4. That is an achievement.
2015 set the standard for video games very high, PARTICULARLY for RPGs. For the record, The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Pillars of Eternity, Fallout 4, and Undertale came out this year.

Keep this in mind: when Fallout 3 came out in 2008, it was considered by many to be the greatest RPG of all time. Fallout 4 received a great deal of flak for, despite being great, not being a significant step up from Fallout 3.

Now, Xenoblade Chronicles is widely considered the best JRPG of the seventh generation only if you discount Persona 4 (hard to place Persona 4 into a generation. Some may consider it sixth, while others would consider it seventh) and Dark Souls (it's a JRPG, but it's a western-style action RPG). If you include both Dark Souls and Persona 4, then Xenoblade Chronicles was the third best. (Edit: Please don't turn to MetaScores for this argument, Dark Souls wasn't as well received as it should have been when it came out, and P4G had a MetaScore of 93.)

Now, as is the trend with the reviews on the game, the game's poorer narrative and music selection (music matters a ton in games, especially JRPGs where gameplay can get repetitive often. See the Final Fantasy series, Xenogears, Soulsborne, Chrono Trigger, and the Personas for excellent examples), makes it appear to be a step down from the original. Fallout 4 got points deducted for being only incrementally better than Fallout 3, and XCX got approximately the same score as Fallout 4.

All this ultimately means is that standards for RPGs have gotten much higher, and XCX just isn't perceived to be as good as The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, or Undertale. XCX is still a good -- even a great -- game.