Judging by the reveal trailers, I would guess we're looking at a game that's much closer to Xenoblade Chronicles that it is to X: a large, single-player story driven RPG, rather than an exploration driven RPG. The emphasis in the reveal trailer is on a handful of characters and settlements, rather than on huge environments and vehicle traversal, as the X reveal was.
An interview Takahashi gave to Time after XCX released supports this angle:
"The design focus for this game was on map exploration and character builds during battle," says Takahashi. "We deliberately distanced ourselves from having philosophical themes intertwined with the core of the story. Given that we at Monolith Soft had no experience with developing HD titles, our goal with this project was to experiment with and implement the assorted tech skills we needed for HD game development. We decided that trying to balance that with an epic theme-laden story would pose difficulties. Our hope is that we can start by creating the core system, then expand on the story and thematic elements in our future project."
This statement is particularly interesting, because it demonstrates two key points about XC2: 1) It will benefit from Monolith Soft's greater knowhow when it comes to HD development, in that they now have the skills and tools required, and 2) XC2 is likely being designed with "an epic theme-laden story" at its core.
This is further supported by an interview with Game Reactor:
"While Xenoblade Chronicles was a true story-driven JRPG, we took a rather different approach with Xenoblade Chronicles X. You could say it doesn't really feel like a typical JRPG: what really sets it apart from other JRPGs is that the game world - the planet Mira - is really vast. I've heard that some Japanese users who played Xenoblade Chronicles X said they enjoyed a more story-driven type of game. So if we have the opportunity to make another game in the series, I'd like to made another typical JRPG-style game like Xenoblade Chronicles again."
It should be fairly obvious - with XC2 being a direct sequel - but these interviews do confirm to me that we should expect a linear, plot-driven RPG rather than an open world RPG this time around. That's not to say XC2 will lack ambition or innovation, but it's quite clear we're looking at a different set of priorities to XCX. Personally I loved both XC and XCX (though I never played any of the other Xeno games), so I'm looking forward to XC2. Hopefully we'll get plenty more details at E3 and confirmation of whether or not this really is a 2017 release.
