Agreed. And if they did this, which they should have, it would have been nominated for Game of The Year, but since it releases after the 3rd, which is the Game Awards, it wasn't. It's really unfortunate. 

More than likely. Xenoblade's Western release was very limited.

I know it's off topic, but I just needed a place to gush over how fucking amazing this soundtrack has been. I've only been listening to songs shown in trailers to not spoil hearing the newer songs for the first time, but I forgot just how fucking awesome it is that Sawano is the composer for this game.

If it has anywhere near the impeccable sound direction that shows featuring his music like Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill have, where Sawano literally made those shows the juggernauts they became, this game is going to be absolutely legendary. Like I seriously cannot gush enough how absolutely genius this guy is.

Remember the first two trailers? You probably don't very well, because I forgot. If you're feeling iffy on the soundtrack because you don't like that their are voices, go back and watch those two. If the whole game is crafted to sound that amazing, I genuinely thing this will tie with one of the greatest soundtracks I have ever heard in a video game, easily out doing the original. OSTs like this are rare in games.

I know they are already making the next game. They're even talking about allowing the player to travel through space, increasing the scale even more, as well as going back to a major focus on story like the original. That all sounds great, but I just pray beyond all prayers that Sawano becomes a more permanent member of Monolith Soft's sound team, because video games need more soundtracks like this. Vocals add something that pure instramentation can never bring, and I can't even begin to imagine how awesome that would be in an OG Xenoblade-tier plot with XCX-tier cutscenes. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. All I can think about going into this game is how fucking epic these cutscenes and boss battles are going to be because of Sawano.

I'm pretty sure you are not "spoiling" yourself of the game, but since it's music related I am not sure if you count it. If you don't, you should definitely take a listen to Primordia's day and night theme. It'll give you a short, but amazing taste of what Sawano has to offer in this game. 

So, the votes seem to be pretty much finished, and about 80% think it'll outsell the original.
The following months will be interesting indeed.

I kind of do. I've tried not to listen to songs that haven't been in trailers and gameplay footage, but I've watched everything up until the last few trailers before the Japanese release, so I'm definitely not going in deaf. If it was in anything before that, I'll give it a listen.

Considering the game sold 90% of it's physical sales to date in the time period it sold 20k digitally it's not as safe a bet as it sounds.  I've also seen pictures of the game in bargain bins more than once on this site, it hasn't exactly had good legs in Japan.  

It has to.

What do you mean?

The sad thing is that no matter how well it does, is gonna make lose money to Nintendo anyways, this is gonna be a great way to keep the most hardcore part of its fans happy, but not to make money, oh well, I guess it will sell some consoles too, and people will buy more games for those consoles so I guess it could be profitable in the long run. I guess.