I liked the story and the characters (specially the Wrothians). The ending left me with a lot of questions that I've tried to answer with the affinity missions. Mira has a Twilight Zone feeling and a lot of the NPC seem like you cannot trust them like the NPC's from Castlevania II or Order of Ecclesia, they ask you for a lot of things and then they just act bizarrely, some of them want to pollute the water, others want to get marry with other xenos or killed them. There's something strange in Mira, like Proffesor B said and that intrigued me a lot so when I watched the ending with Lao waking up in the beach with those black eyes I said "The Twilight Zone continues!" And there are too may loose ends like why the Ganglion were trapped in Mira, who where the Founders, why the humans are still alive, etc.

I like the story and what they did with it towards the end, but it doesn't change the fact that the story presentation in X sucks balls. It's terrible.

A lot of these complaints were the same ones people had about Xenosaga Episode I, the only difference is there is also a lot of positives to be said about this game.

If they develope the cast more (and just make Cross an actual character), then Xenoblade as a whole could be the best in the series easily.

I also have a feeling that they will tie the two together. The ending of Xenoblade X strongly hints at it being FAR more than a "loose connection".

You're new, so I hope people won't give you too much crap, but when posting spoilers you gotta do the following:

Click on Rich Text Reply (located above the respond box), highlight your spoilers text, then at the top will be a drop down menu that says "Styles", change that to "Spoilers". Then submit it,

How so? I didn't notice X's ending tying it with the first game.

All spoilers!

The entire twist ending is a direct reflection of the mechons (mechanical beings that are able to contain a "soul"), along with Elma's words "This is impossible, it must have something to do with this planet". 

Other hints are the Tatsu directly saying their species were native to the planet, and that Hom homs are always welcome

Telethia being there

the giant mechanical disk protruding from the ground that was not wreckage from the White Whale.

I found XCXs story to be far bigger and more interesting than XCWii's formulaic plot. XCWii's high point was the gameplay, but XCX's gameplay totally eclipses it. XCX certainly has a much more complex story with many more moving parts.

 Even with characters that have focus like Lin or Elma I feel they don't get the character-portrait they deserve. But I think it is most visible in the random NPCs you find around. In XC most of them had interesting stories. Remember the gang of youngsters that planned a firework to lighten the spirits? The mysterious lights in the sea and the conclusion what it was with the decision to tell the truth or bolster the legend? The girl who lost her blacksmith father (who actually is one of the metal faces you encounter)? The criminal who used a beatiful girl to extract money from a writer? The Nopon child who wants to play with other children in Colony 9? I think these stories are all more memorable than these in XCX. I at least remember them, although I played it a long time ago.

The worst are the disrespect towards Tatsu. Riki was a funny little ball of fur (or feathers or ... i don't know), but he was respected by the group. Everytime Lin makes food-jokes about Tatsu I cringe inside.

What XCX makes really great is the exploration. These regions are all designed so interesting - i love it. Every time I find something new it feels so rewarding, because it looks interesting. That is really great, Mira is great.

For me, XCX is a study of a city, of a large group of people after they have to adapt to a new homeworld. It's a study of how a large variety of people act, react, adapt, or don't adapt to new surroundings. It's about each individuals actions within this situation, as not everyone would feel the same. Attached to that is how individuals live with not just meeting, but having no choice but to co-exist with alien species. Most movies/shows/games have humanity just meeting aliens for the first time and stop there or humanity has known aliens for hundreds of years. XCX is a case study of storytelling through world building as opposed to a melodramatic plot or long term character development. Each person and situation represents an attitude and doing each affinity and normal
missions is a look at said attitude. The game plays out more like a TV show based on worldbuilding than like a plot driven movie.

That's why the game is structured the way it is. The story missions are really things that only open up because of your exploration, work on affinity missions, and work on normal quests. The campaign is one of the less interesting things about the game, but unlike most other titles, it's part of a larger whole. I felt the same when I was playing The Witcher 3 as well. The campaign was okay in that game, but it was really the totality of everything including side quests that felt better written and more interesting than the main quests that really caught my attention.

What's also great is that the game explores explores both the tragedy and the comedy that could go on. Trite Tatsu jokes aside, there is some legitimate comedy that made me laugh. This is coming from someone who is jaded towards a lot of comedy. At the same time, there are some horrifying things that people do to others and themselves on Mira that they probably otherwise would have never done if they were on earth.

I don't remember any of the side quests from XC. While I love XC, i'm not beyond admitting that it did a lot of things by the numbers and for the most part, was the Shulk and Melia show. For a game that's supposed to be character development driven, those are the only two that had long characters arcs that stood out.

I'm always bewildered by the cult of character development that came about with the advent of FMVs in the video game fandom and then rose among armchair critics in the movie world. Some of the best stories made don't have "relatable" characters or character development, at least not in the way they talk about it. In fact, some of the best stuff ever written has negative character development, where the protagonist gets worse as the narrative goes on. In fact, some of the games that people claim have great character development don't. Instead, what they have is strong characterization. And some of the best fiction includes ensemble casts that much like XCX, are a study of a situation or a time period with each character being a miniature portrait of someone in that time to give us a more broad look at what's going on. What kept my interest in this game and made me love it wasn't a single person's development, but anticipation of what crazy thing the next person you met was involved in. It's also why I loved a blank slate protagonist for this game - it's about how you, the player react to these situations, not how a pre-built person you have no control over reacts.

+1000

I love X and compare to Majora's Mask: once you make the sidequests, you will see the full picture of the game.