Here's why I'm excited and why I'm skeptical for the new Xenoblade Chronicles X. 

The number 1. reason I'm excited. 

It's Xenoblade. I love Xenoblade, I spent a good portion of 2013 playing Xenoblade, and another good portion of 2014 doing the sidequests for Xenoblade. 

Aside from that, the music of Xenoblade was awesome, this soundtrack sounds great, but it is a different composer, so I'm cautously excited for the music of X.

The world is huge, and the graphics are great. Just take a look here at the expansive overworld filled with huge monsters.

Everything about this game is awesome, the music, the graphics, the world, and cutscenes. Ever since the e3 2013 trailer came out, I've had that page bookmarked so I can watch it whenever I want. It looks awesome, so much hype. 

What I'm skeptical about

There are two things that I'm skeptical about. 

1) Character customization: A lot of people like the concept, you're able to customize your character to be male/female, different hairstyles and such. And this worries me. Will the protaganist be silent? One of the things I liked about Xenoblade were the characters. Especially Shulk. With customization, your character may not even have a personality. Granted it could work out if they could get both a male and a female voice-overs throughout the entire game, but that would be the only exception for this. It also makes so there isn't a definite ship, so that is a missed opportunity for the fanfictions. I hope they make it good, because I don't want to be disappointed. 

2) It isn't a direct sequel to the first game: ): This saddens me deeply. I was sooo excited when the title of this game was XCX, mainly because I wanted a direct sequel to the first game. The end of the first game was a perfect place to start a new game, especially when Shulk wants to explore the new world that is apparently 'limitless'.

So, these are my thoughts, I will edit it if I see fit. 

No gripes here.

I don't want any of the characters from the original back, so I'm happy that they ditched them. The characters and story were relatively forgettable, and I'm hoping they knock it out of the park with this one. No reason to saddle the game with old, mediocre characters.

This year's e3 trailer for this game was ... lame.

The moment I thought 'graphics downgrade' was when I saw that ship fly over a moon. Terrible shadow/lighting effect. And that Emma character they showed us? So awkward. And trailer music was... weird.

2013's trailer was insanely way, way better.

He seems to be silent from the videos shown.

I agree with the character customization thing.. I don't want a silent hero in an game where you're traveling with a group of people. It takes you out of the story.

I'm looking forward to x. I was one of those that missed the bus on the first one, but was lucky enough to find one at a flee market for $60 new, perfect unused condition. But I have yet to get deep into it. I started to play, but haven't for many months..... Maybe I need to give it another go.

I guess it was a hit and miss. I loved the characters of Shulk, Fiora, Melia and Riki, Dunban was okay, but I didn't like Reyn or Sharla. 

In a way. The forced love-triangle was cringing and none of the characters were really that memorable, at least for me. The great RPGs have rememberable and unique characters, and Xenoblade didn't quite accomplish that for me.

It's a good thing that the world and gameplay completely made up for that though. 

I agree about the customizable protagonist. It makes the main character soul less. I watched a 40min demo, and from I saw, I think across all the cutscenes the main character did'nt talk once (but they did skip a whole lot from them for the demo's sake). I fear it will be a silent protagonist, I understand the whole ''the protagonist is a extension of yourself'' argument, but I loved shulk as a character. He had a personality, dreams, background, emotions etc... I wanted him (still do) in Smash bros. It's good that I'd be able to make my main character as cool looking as I want, but I'm afraid I won't care for him as a character. But maybe I'm wrong, they did turn the customisable protagonist in Fire Emblem as a full character so we can still have hope. (but even if my fears are true, I'm sure the game will still be amazing)

As for being a direct sequel to the original Xenoblade. I disagree with you. The game ended perfectly and left a sense of mystery and hope for the future of these characters. But those feelings are better left untouched imo. I also don't see where they would go from here. Making a direct sequel would be limiting the story imo, aliens are not possible (or atleast would'nt make much sense) in this Xenoblade universe. The only way it would would be if the game was 100s of years after the event of Xenoblade, and in that case it would still be more of a spiritual sequel than anything.

The xenoblade story was finished. There was no need for a sequel.

I did have the same thought about the character customization. We'll see how that turns out.