There are definitely reasons to believe etking either didn't play Xenoblade X, or didn't play much of it. I mean "boring skell battles"? Either he never built a 60 skell with super weapons and augments, or he simply doesn't know what he's talking about. 

Also "boring characters". They were fairly fleshed out and interesting if people cared to do the quests. Irena, Yelv, and Mia are the three stories that stick out in my mind that were amazing.

"Empty World", lol. That has to be a joke. Seems like it's the go to for people who want to dislike an open world game. Plenty of secret areas, nemesis monsters, caves, floating islands, let alone regular monsters. 

Essentially, the only actual issue is story, but is pretty on par for a part 1. 

I'm really not sure what to think of XB2 yet. The reveal trailer made it look like rushed, generic trash, but maybe its one of those games that gets better the more we see of it.

I am pleased that its a sequel to the original game and not XCX though. I did enjoy XCX but the first game was by far superior.

I feel the same. XCX was a fun video game, and the awesomeness of exploring the world in a mech cannot be understated, but if you asked me what I thought of the story or characters, I would honestly probably post pictures of my cat to distract you from my inablility to answer. I understood the basic premise...it just felt so..foreign, and I had a hard time inserting myself into the universe, or really caring about anything they were doing.

Meanwhile, the first Xenoblade Chronicles is easily in my top 10, and had one those stories I still find myself daydreaming about. So many powerful moments that just shook me to my core. 

Kind of related, but maybe less so...I really hope this game goes back to an established MC over an customizable avatar. I grown to find that I only really like avatars in games with heavy sim elements, and I'd much prefer an actual character MC in a game with a strong story focus.

Yeah same here, the world of Mira, the exploration, and the skells were freaking amazing, but where the first game swept me away with its intriguing story, charming characters, and glorious soundtrack, these aspects were somewhat underwhelming in XCX.

There are scenes in XBC that hit like a freight train, and I really hope XBC 2 recaptures that.

Mira is absolutely amazing to traverse. One of the best worlds I've ever experienced in a game, for gameplay purposes.

As a narrative setting it's so frustratingly boring it makes me angry. The landscape is littered with interesting structures and wildlife. The world raises so many questions, and not a single one of them is ever answered. Follow a side plot to its conclusion and you almost always hit the brick wall of "whatever, Mira is just weird."

I can't even express to you how cheated I felt when the already pretty dull story was hijacked at the very last second by "LOL whatever Mira is weird."

This is the complete opposite of Xenoblade where the world has a history, the world is its own character, and if you dig deep enough you can discover tons of details about it. Not to say there is no mystery to the Bionis and Mechonis, but there is at least a purpose for the mystery.

I seriously don't see the rushed generic trash angle.  I get you and others don't like the character design but if you set that aside, there's plenty of fantastic promise to be seen in the world's scale and aesthetics and some really cool things to see and explore.  If this is what rushed generic trash looks like, then I wish more devs made some rushed generic trash :P

Seriosuly, people need to stop being reactionary and obsessing over one aspect of a trailer.  But whatever, I'm done fighting on this point since no one seems to care to have any patience or broader perspective on the issue.

It's not even just the stock anime characters, the world has none of the sense of wonder that previous games evoked with their vast alien landscapes, it just looks sterile and bland. Hopefully at E3 we'll see some more interesting environments.

I certainly don't see standard, sterile, and bland but whatever, I'm tired of yelling into a headwind with all the efficacy of a fart in a hurricane.   We'll wait until E3.  Sorry if I sound harsh, but I have very little tolerance for blatant hyperbole, especially that which I consider premature and unduly harsh, which this is in the extreme.

But again, I'm done, rant over, not going to bother discussing this game until there's more to see.

I'm old enough to remember people saying this about X before they had shown any areas other than Primordia.

Even from the very first trailer of X I was wowed by the scale and grandeur of its world. Not so here.

Again, I hope at E3 they'll show some more impressive areas. A lot games seem meh at first then look progressively better as they approach release.