Famitsu or user reviews shouldn't be taken seriously... Famitsu gave this game a 33/40 and Xenoblade Chronicles X a 34/40... Dengeki, a Japanese gaming publication, called the game a masterpiece and praised the story direction.

To counter ryuzaki's review there's Tachi who called it the best current-gen game so far.

Famitsu has four reviewers.  Two said the story was pretty good, one said quite good, and one said ok/a weakness.  And Kotaku didn't like the first game's story either.  At all, in fact.  And I should think that "major" and part of "the trend" does not include a user on this forum :P .  And if so then I would point out Tachikoma who said the story was solid.  Not saying the story is the highlight of the game, mind.  I've guessed from the start it wouldn't be as big a deal as the original Xenoblade, the design of the game gave that away for me from the start.  Just saying, I would say the trend for previews has been mostly positive with a fairly back-and-forth on opinion on the story.  Which isn't too far off the original's mark, by the way.  As some forget, the story of Xenoblade Chronicles was recieved with mixed feelings by critics with a leaning towards positive (many thought the characters were bland and the plot poor; not my feelings at all); it was the game around it and the setting that the critics gushed over the most.  But I digress, this is all beside the point.  

And yes, as I said earlier, people need to stop basing their desired scores and by extension purchases on hopes and instead do extensive research and ground themselves on the facts.  People often give the good advice of not judging a game purely on one review or on the Meta, but people often go to the extreme and don't trust any reviews, scores, or any other kind of coverage.  

They shouldn't be taken seriously, yes, but they game it a lower score than the original. The trend of individual reviewers is more important than the score when it comes to sequels.

I may be wrong, since this is from my memory of Tachi's posts, but I think she also said that the story wasn't fabulous either, even though she really liked the game.

And to respond to Nuvendil, if you look at the Kotaku reviewers comments in the comment section, he specifically states that the major drawback of XCX is that the story is signficantly worse.

No wonder why Nintendo didnt wanted to publish this game.

Two Famitsu reviewers said the game had too many cutscenes, not that the story was bad. Here's there MGS4 review of Famitsu: 10/10/10/10. What a buncha jokers. That game had much more cutscenes than gameplay.

Here's the Famitsu review of XCX:

Reviewer 1 – 9

Deep and long story, tough enough difficulty and highly user-friendly systems remind of old RPGs in a good way. The huge open world is packed with a countless number of stories and it will require time and effort to tackle them properly. Pilotable Dolls are irresistible gems for people who like robots, as there are plenty of customization elements and you can dynamically transform the vehicle. There is much to do, and while it may feel tiresome, you’ll get a sense of accomplishment.

Reviewer 2 – 9

It’s fun to adventure seamlessly in a huge field which overflows with the sense of freedom. Things like huge primitive creatures are also exciting. Adventuring is pleasant thanks to a handy Skip Travel feature which allows for movement by touching the map. There are plenty of strategy elements and although they are complex to an extent, unique systems like “Soul Voice”, which activates under certain conditions, are interesting. You can also enjoy other strategy elements like arts, skills and Dolls, or the customization.

Reviewer 3 – 8

The word “grand” describes this really epic game precisely. The huge field is beautiful and the excitement doesn’t run out in this adventure when the view changes from day to night. Things like the world setting are explained carefully and cut-scenes appear often so it is a bit of waste that things tend to progress slowly. It would also be good if the tempo of conversations was a bit faster. It’s nice that you can attack fiercely when you get the knack of combat. It’s also charming how enemies or Dolls launch attacks from different types of customizable parts.

Reviewer 4 – 8

It’s fun to move around and explore the seamless open world without any stress and there are many gimmics which take use of vastness of the map. The combat combines action games with a command-based system, the tempo is good, and battles are highly strategic. The story is carefully made, but there is a strong feeling of just watching a movie. There are also many cases where game systems aren’t properly explained and one has to stumble around in the dark.

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It should be obvious that these snippets don't qualify as real reviews. Famitsu doesn't do actual reviews, they're too lazy for that apparently.

A major AAA game with a 33 metascore. 

yes i am serious, these western reviewers are biased against Japanese games and its a fact that there arent any japanese review sites in Metacritic

Basically. It was getting a bit irritating seeing that people were getting mad at Nintendo over this game. Obviously they didn't have faith in this game and it looks like they were right on the money. 

Oh but don´t worry, now people is gonna shit about it becasue they are publishing a terrible game, exactly as the people wanted

I expected a metacritic of atleast 50%. If the online portion of the game wasn't coming to PC, I'm sure the game would have gotten higher scores.