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

The problem with FFXIII's story was the absolutely godawful characters.

XBC by contrast presents likeable individuals who develop over the course of the game.

FFXIII is pretty much a glorified corridor with hours of mediocre writting and awfull characters.

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. 

So, Xenoblade is up there on a Hamlet and Great Gatsby tier as literary and artistic achievements?

I think the real question is, is Hamlet and Great Gatsby up there with Xenoblade as a literary and artistic achievement?

Glad you are liking it, it is indeed one of the best games last gen.

But in my honest opinion the story follows the usual outlandish anime pattern: making less sense as it goes on and gets a little worse. Still enjoyed the story, its just nothing really better or worse than a standard JRPG story.

Most jrpgs focus on political and social undertones to get the story across, while Xenoblade uses more religious and psychological. I'd say there are some cliches that do come off as very familiar, but there is also much that is different between this and the typical jrpg. 

I was simply making a point that one can appreciate artistic achievement with out liking something.

That is a fair point, but I meant typical JRPG pattern by throwing a curve ball into the plot that doesnt quite make complete sense, the protagonist having a special origin rather than what is initially told, and personally I felt the story with the faced mechons changed after bronze face.